Newfound Hope
by Themonsterrinsideme
Summary: Zoey, a young adult with a normal life and family, is immediately pulled out of that normal trance when a dangerous green flu sweeps across the nation and takes her loved ones from her hands. Now, there's only one thing left for her to do: Survive.
1. Crashing Down

Now, call her crazy.

But she nearly jumped out of her seat to grab a gun the minute she read on the news:

"New unknown disease Spreads throughout nation, reports seen of the sick with highly contagious matters- Paling in the skin, high fevers, eyes growing lighter in all colours, teeth decaying/growing sharper, as for fingernails and toenails. Military suggestions: Report unusual behavior. Barricade your homes. Avoid all contact with infected individuals. Wait for official instructions."

Paranoid and slightly anxious, if she knew one thing from watching horror films every night instead of studying, she knew that 'infected individuals', in her logic, meant zombies.

"Dad, what guns do you have?" She'd asked at the dinner table one night.

"Zoey, since when did you get into guns all of a sudden?" Her father responded with a question of his own, setting his fork down.

"Yeah, you've been acting funny since first reports on this new virus going around." Her mother added.

"Well, you've always wanted me to be a cop, right dad?" She asked, turning to him after a glance to her other elder.

Her dad nearly choked on the food he was about to swallow, and wiped his mouth, still struggling a bit to catch his breath after repeative coughing. "A cop? Yes, but you never agreed."

"I thought going to the shooting rank would be kind of.. fun?" Zoey tried again.

After a long, long pause, her father gave in. "Okay. Fine. You want to learn how to shoot a pistol or the heavier guns?"

"Heavier." _Like in the movies._

"Alright. We'll head out tomorrow."

* * *

"Like this?" Zoey laughed, squinting one eye and aiming at a closer target.

"No- You have to- like- keep your arms straight-" His father was laughing too hard.

Aiming drove her crazy. In the movies and video games, they didn't stop and take forever to take the damn safety off, line up your coordinates, keep a straight line in your arms, and shoot.

In here, it took ten times as long. _How is she going to tell a zombie to wait for her to get ready before she can shoot them?_

"Zoey you have to-"

_Bang._

A gunshot went off and smoke puffed around Zoey's training pistol; a hold dead center in the target.

She aimed at another target.

_Bang._

Two more.

_Bang, Bang._

Her face was suddenly serious. She aimed for another and shotonce, twice, and a dead click the third time told her that her clip was empty.

In the center of new target where two holes on top of each other, proving to her father she can shoot fine.

"Where'd you learn to shoot like that?"

"Would you think I'm crazy?" She asked suddenly, not taking her eyes off of her pistol as she reloaded it.

Her father was caught off guard at the off-topic question, but answered nonetheless.

"...If...?"

"If I believed there's more to the flu than just being sick?"

"Depends what you mean. How far would this 'more' thing go?"

Zoey hesitated, pausing after shoving the magazine in and staring at the hand gun for a moment before sighing. "Don't say I'm 'brain-washed' or anything, because I get to blame you for getting me into horror movies." She chuckled with force.

"But I think the flu is pre-infection to.. to a zombie apocalypse..."

Zoey looked up to find her dad paused with an arched eyebrow.

"And why..."

"I don't know. Paranoid. But why would their teeth and nails sharpen?"

"I don't-"

"The military suggested to not come in contact with anyone who picked up the flu."

"But, Zoey-"

"They even said to _barricade _our homes! What kind of sickness would need boarded up homes and absolute no encounter with anyone?"

"Zoey, listen to me-"

"And to report unusual behavior? This is ridiculous, I just can't-"

"_Zoey!" _her father finally gained her attention to let him speak.

"Hun, it is weird, and I know it's a strange illness, but you have to believe me when I say that it's just another disease."

_Just another disease, huh? Tell that to me when I'm chewing on your brains._

"What about the teeth? Or the nails? Why we'd need to keep our homes locked up? And to not come close to anyone who has it? These symptoms are more than 'just another disease', dad. Hear me out when I say that.. I'm scared." Zoey said on the verge of tears.

Her father went over and hugged her tightly, Zoey immediately gripping onto him and sniffing loudly.

"Even the military and police are involved in this."

"...Is this why you want a gun? To be sure?"

"...Yeah..."

"Zoey, even if it _did _happen, we'd already be out and in the evacuation center before they even lay a finger on my little girl." He said, kissing her on the top of her head, and receiving a muffled chuckle into his chest.

"You want a gun? I'll get you any gun you'd like. Just promise not to shoot me in the ass or anything." He joked, referring to an old paint-ball gun fight the two had in the previous years.

"Thanks, dad. I promise." She said, looking up with tear-stained eyes, but a smile on her face.

* * *

"Okay.. let's see what they've said this time." Zoey said to herself quietly as she flicked on the TV and switched channels to the news, jumping onto her bed to lay on her back.

"-Spreading even further down south. These victims of the infection are being treated in quarantine lock-down, as doctors and police try to figure out what, exactly, has caused the virus." A brunette spoke to the screen, along with her co-host, who took a breath to speak.

"Yknow, Juliet, I heard that there were rumors spreading around on how the Green Flu started-"

Zoey's heart sank, and she dropped the remote with a frown curling on her face. _Green Flu?_

"-Saying that there was an infectionous bug _somehow_ getting inside and spreading viruses throughout the body."

"Ron, did they say anything about the evacuation centers?" The brunette asked, and Zoey all but collapsed, her face falling into wide eyes and an agape mouth.

"Oh yes." He said, straightening some papers to look at them and read aloud. "There will be evacuation centers located in: The Vannah, South meadows mall-"

Zoey clicked the TV off and ran downstairs.

"Dad! Dad!"

There was shuffling around at the foot of the stairs, and what Zoey saw when she turned the corner nearly broke her heart. Her mother was in tears.

"Honey, I'm running the worst of fevers, and I need a rag. Can you get one for me?"

Zoey began trembling, and pulled her eyes away from the pale woman to rush upstairs and grab a dishcloth from the family bathroom.

Her mind raced as she climbed the stairs.

_'Paling in the skin, high fevers, eyes growing lighter in all colours...' _

Her mother was pale. And had a fever. Her eyes.. They looked different, but Zoey hadn't been able to debate about it for long. Before she knew it, she was running down the stairs again, not even considering grabbing the damp cloth as she heard her father yelling for help.

"Help! Get her off me! Maria! Please...! Stop it- OW! MARIA STOP IT!"

"DAD!" Zoey yelled, already knowing the worst of the worse.

Maria was scrambling on top of her father, and he was pushing and pulling for his life to be spared from being eaten by a zombie.

"Zoey! Grab my gun and shoot her!"

"Shoot her-?"

"NOW!"

Zoey dashed around the corner and went to the counter to grab a pistol, fiddling with the handle as she ran back to shoot her mother.

"I'm.. I'm sorry..." She aimed to shoot, but didn't have the heart. She rushed over and shoved her mother off before she could do anymore serious damage to the wounded man.

Hurt, but still conscious, her father got up and yelled.

"Why did you shoot her?!" He asked loudly as Maria stumbled around, looking from Zoey to his wife.

"I.. I can't!"

He immediately grabbed the gun and clicked the safety off. "Sorry, darling, it's for your own good." He mumbled with tears as he shot her in the chest, on her upper left side.

Right on the heart.

"Zoey.. Zoey I need.."

"Dad?" Her eyes widened as he gripped onto his arm, not having the heart to show her daughter the bite marks.

"..I need you to shoot me."

"What?! Dad you know I couldn't shoot mom, how am I supposed to shoot you-?"

"Would you rather me turn into one of them," He said with a nod to the door and continued. "and eat you alive?"

Zoey started crying. She sniffled, and shook her head.

"Then..."

Zoey nodded as she slowly took the gun with trembling fingers, placing her forefinger on the trigger hesitantly.

"Dad.. I love you as much as you love me. I.. I'm so sorry." She whispered.

He stood there with a worn look, tears in his eyes and still clutching his arm, leaning onto his only leg that didn't hurt.

"I love you too, Zoey." He took a deep breath, and closed his eyes as Zoey took aim.

"I love you." She repeated with a broken whisper, and a shot rang through the air.

* * *

"Fuck off." She muttered to an infected who had chosen her for a snack, shoving him away and shooting him in the middle of his head with a hunting rifle.

"...Ten points for me.." She said half-heartedly as she wandered the quiet street, looking around for any sign of a safe house.

The evacuation centers had been over-filled with so many desperate people, that the military could only squeeze in so much. They'd set up more evac ships and helicopters, the last of them all.

As figured, there would be survivors who didn't make it, so the military'd set up safe houses. So far, as she knew it, Zoey was the only one left.

Except for the occasional zombies to come rushing towards her.

Zoey looked at her path ahead through her scope, and plucked off stragglers to keep her occupied for the moment.

Suddenly, an unnatural screech split through the dead air, and Zoey immediately looked away from the scope to search her surroundings.

She wanted to call out, ask if anyone was there, but she knew she'd only draw unwanted attention to her, and it'd be pointless.

She took one cautious step, and with sudden weight pinning her down, she knew it'd be her last.

"Ahh! Help! Anyone! Get it off!" Zoey yelled, attempting to push off the hooded figure that prepared to claw into her.

She knew the chances of survivaling against infected that were mutating in their special way was low, but she still tried. She did want to live after all.

There was a figure running towards her, and she saw him in the corner of her eye. She figured it'd be another common to assist to the hooded creature, kicking and clawing, biting and punching while leaving bruises and scratches.

There was a shot of a gun.

The weight was lifted off of her.

But...She didn't do anything.


	2. Curious Cat

"Whew, that was close, sweet-cheeks."

"What?" Zoey asked, stunned.

A muscular, tattooed arm was held in front of her, and she accepted it before she was pulled up.

He spoke in a grumbled, deep voice, "Yknow, that hunter. Would've been the end of you, had I come later." He kicked at the dead body and scoffed. "Ugh. Disgusting assholes. I hate zombies."

"Wait-What? Hunter? And what the hell just happened?"

"Hunter. Hoodie? The asshole that almost killed you? Damn. Did you hit your head or something?" The man said.

Zoey now took a pause to figure out that there indeed was another survivor, living, breathing, talking to her. She looked at the slightly older man, seeing a black leather jacket that was painted with blood, leather cloves, a muscle shirt and jeans.

She looked back up to his eyes. "Tell me I haven't gone mad and am imagining another survivor."

"I know, I thought the same thing when I found Louis here."

"Louis? You mean there's more?"

"Yep."

"And they're alive?"

"Yep. Are you done with questions?"

"What the hell are _you_ still doing alive?" Zoey arched an eyebrow.

"Well... Grabbed a gun, began shooting. That simple."

Zoey looked around for a little bit, realizing this 'Louis' has never showed any appearance yet. "Where.. _is _Louis?"

"Out looking for supplies in the houses." The biker responded flatly.

"Oh."

"Francis! Francis, who are you talking to?" A man with a simple white polo with long sleeves, red tie, and black slacks came around the corner of a nearby house, carrying a couple of bottles and an assault rifle.

"Oh.. So _that's _what your name is." Zoey turned her attention back to the biker, heavy sarcasm on her lips. "Great introduction, _Francis._"

He rolled his eyes and turned back to Louis. "Hey, found another one just as she was about to be ripped up by that hunter." He said with another kick to prove his point.

"Louis, this is.. Uh.." He turned to Zoey, and she realized she'd never introduced herself either.

"Zoey."

"Yeah, what she said." Francis muttered.

"Nice to meet you, Zo. You heard, but I'm Louis." He smiled, and stuck out a hand for her to shake.

Zoey stared at the hand, debating weather or not to shake some _stranger's _hand.

_His friend just saved my life, it's the least I can do._

She took it, and with more than needed effort, smiled back.

"Anything hurt?" Francis suddenly asked.

"Um.." Zoey said, inspecting herself. "Nope, probably just a bruise from my fall. I'm good."

"Then let's go." the biker said, and Louis scrambled to give everyone a water bottle before grabbing his rifle and heading off.

"Just where_ are _we going?"

"Like everyone else, New Orleans." Francis said, not even looking back as he spoke.

_Everyone else? There's more?_

Zoey's face twisted in curiosity as these thoughts of more people ran through her mind.

It'd already been a week since killing her parents, and she finally found two people in one day. Now there's more?

"Francis." Zoey stopped him after walking a decent amount of blocks in silence, and she and Louis stopped, too.

"What do you mean by 'everyone else'?" She voiced her question that'd been itching at her.

"I mean, everyone else." He said with no emotion. "Louis and I talked to some guy on the radio before the power just downright died, and man he wouldn't shut up. But the point is, there are more people, four others, and they're heading to New Orleans where there's a supposed evac center."

"How long ago did you talk to these guys?"

"Not too long. Maybe three... four days?" Louis guessed, and looked to Francis who shrugged before picking off another infected running at them.

"Mm. How do we even know that there's people waiting for us? Maybe the military screwed us over again." Zoey mumbled quietly.

"We can try and hope. That's all we can really do on our way there." Louis said with an optimist voice in his speech.

"That's all you've been saying. 'Try and hope, try and hope, try-and-fucking-hope.'" Francis abruptly snapped. "I think even if it's only been so much as a week, I'm already sick of 'hoping' for something magical to happen that never will."

"Zombies happened. Why not?" Zoey suddenly interfered, an attempt to help out the office-man who was being grouched at.

Francis opened his mouth to say something almost instantly, but closed it when he realized nothing was going to come out.

"Fine. You two can try and hope, but I'm not gonna put my word with it. And if it'll get you two to be quiet for _one minute _about it," He specifically looked over to Louis, who gave a guilty look in return, "then I won't put my word _against_ it either."

"So, how are we gonna do this?" Louis asked as he stared up at the tall cement building that was promised to be a 'safe room'.

"We can't even get in, dammit." Zoey kicked at the metal door, and cried out in pain shortly after.

Francis banged on the door after gently pushing Zoey out of the way.

"Let us in! There has to be someone in there, you can't hide forever!" He screamed at the door, banging on it again.

And let there be some miracle, it happened. The door slowly but surely unbolted and opened, revealing an older man, wearing a veteran war uniform, a wearing-out cigarette hanging out of his bearded mouth, and a single shotgun in his delicate yet strong hands.

"Can I help you?" He bit sarcastically with an old and bitter voice. Francis sighed loudly and shoved him aside, letting himself in. Zoey stared in disbelief at the low-mannered man as he disappeared further into the house, and turned back to the elder.

"What's your name?" She asked slowly.

"Name's Bill, kid. You three?"

"Oh, well I'm Louis," Louis smiled brightly, and pointed to Zoey. "This here's Zoey. That ass inside is Francis."

"Mm." Bill gave a grunt, and pushed himself aside to let the other two in.

"How long have you _been _in here?" Zoey asked as she looked around the safe house curiously.

"Not too long. I thought at first that damn banging was another infected trying to break in." He explained absent-mindedly as he began to clean the butt of his gun.

"Any food?" Francis asked from the kitchen across the hall.

"If you want spoiled green-beans, help yourself." Bill called back.

Francis was heard with a groan, and a slam of a wooden door.

He came back around, rubbing his neck and twisting it this way and that, while Zoey stared off into a dark room. "Guys, I'm gonna see what's in there."

"Okay." They all mumbled, distracted with their own findings.

Zoey slowly walked into the small spaced room that was failing to lighten up from the outside light. She glanced around and noticed a small desk in the center of the room, with multiple papers and pens stacked on top of it. She furrowed her eyebrow as she walked forward to see what the papers where.

There was a paper with the U.S. poorly drawn on it, with red X's and green circles in many areas, red more than green. The states were labeled with 'Infected', 'Cleared', and 'Evacuation located' on it, and there was a small black circle starting a point before a line was traced to New Orleans.

She'd found herself her treasure map.

The group surrounded the table as Zoey flattened out the map of a closer spot on where they were, where they were going.

Their point A and B.

Bill traced a finger from were they stood, Pittsburgh, to New Orleans, and grunted. "This is going to be a looong trip, kids."

"How so?" Louis asked, eyebrow raising.

"May take several days if we're on foot."

The other three groaned.

"Well, are we going to stay up here and die, or go to Louisiana?"

"We could at least _try _to find a car. I sure as hell don't want to walk that long." Francis grumbled.

"And what on earth makes you think there will be a working car here, of all places?" Bill argued. "Everyone, and I mean _everyone _drove around like maniacs the first day, trying to get to the evas."

"I didn't." Francis stated.

Zoey chuckled off to the side, and cleared her throat at Bill's expression.

"Look, there has to be _some _car still existing around that'll give us a good drive." Louis agreed.

Bill sighed, and placed his hands on the table in defeat. "Alright, I suppose."

The alarm was loud.

They hadn't known who or what had hit or shot it, but as soon as it went off, they were surrounded.

Somewhere to Francis' left, Zoey was pleading for help, having already been downed. To his right, lost in the sea of infected, were Bill and Louis screaming in pain.

"God.. DAMMIT-" Francis cursed, trying to shove the creatures off of him as he reloaded.

Then he dropped his gun.

A spew of curses tumbled from the biker's lips as he knelt down, covering his head from any more blows to the face. Zoey's cries only seemed to get more and more louder, somehow projecting over the mass of chaos, and getting more exhausted each time. Francis fought his way over to her, attempting to shove off any infected surrounding his teammates as he did so.

He pulled out his pistols, and shoved the barrel under the chin of a snarling infected, blowing their head off. "I'm coming!" He yelped when an infected threw a punch right to the side of his stomach, and kicked it back before shooting it in the forehead.

"I'm down!"

"Bill, help Louis!" Francis yelled loudly, killing more infected surrounding him and Zoey.

"Heeelp! Ow-Ah- HELP!" Zoey was heard crying weakly.

"Zoey!" Francis shoved another rather stubborn zombie, and ran over.

He tugged at the figure that was punching at their only woman of the party, and with strong hands, pulled it off.

Zoey was not in a pretty condition when he found her.

Her face was twisted in pain and anger, her hand clutched at a bleeding leg as she doubled over and cried out, and there was a pool of blood starting to surround her. Holes were beginning to rip in the bottom of her jeans, and her shoes were worn out over constantly kicking off infected that punched at her while she was down.

"Zoey..?" Francis propped her up against a wall, shoving another infected all the while. He unlatched the pipe bomb attached to Zoey's belt, and started the timer. "Pipe bomb, out!" He screamed, and a portion of the chaos left to kick at and try to silence the scrap of device.

Francis covered Zoey with his arm and turned away as the ground slightly shook while the bomb exploded nearby, then tugged at her weak arm. "Come on, Zo, you have to get up!"

"I..I don't wanna.." She mumbled, half dazed.

The biker in response said nothing, but turned to cover the two, shooting at infected that tried to get near them.

Then finally, _finally, _the alarm stopped, and most of the infected where dead.

"Bill? Louis?" Francis called with a cupped hand around his mouth, voice echoing.

"We're fine!" He heard Bill call in the distance. Francis sighed, and turned to Zoey.

"Come on," He said, picking her up, and placing his gun on her stomach. "Shoot."

She nodded weakly, and picked up the pistol in her tired hands.

Francis walked the two over to were he assumed the others were, breathing hard over their fight.

"What happened here?" Bill asked them as Francis was spotted carrying the woman, limping slightly.

"Zoey.. She hurt her leg, badly." He breathed out exhaustively, stumbling over before finding his balance and recovering.

"Looks like you did too." Bill observed, eyebrow slowly raising. "Outta get that fixed."

For the first time in a long while, Francis looked over himself. What he saw on his leg disgusted himself a bit. Cuts all up his legs, torn through his pants, bruises showing through the holes... Even flesh sticking out over scrapes.

Francis cringed his face. "Surprised it doesn't hurt as bad as it looks."

"Oh it will. Let's get going." the veteran said, excusing himself and leading the group, Zoey still in Francis' arms.

"Ow- Okay, that hur-OW." Francis yelped as his leg was being treated with a wet rag by Louis, who chuckled in response.

"Man-up, Zoey isn't complaining and she's worse than you."

Francis grumbled some curses under his breath.

"You swear a lot." He laughed.

"I do not!" Francis argued, then yelled again when the cloth was placed more firmly to his leg.

"Only every five seconds." Louis said under his breath, wiping at a certainly stubborn spot on the wound.

"Louis, are you done cleaning Francis up?" Bill called from the bedroom he and Zoey were staying in.

"Almost. How's Zoey?"

"Passed out."

Louis hummed in response, then began to wrap gauze around; Francis lifting his leg after every circle.

"So uh..." He started, trying to figure out how to start a conversation.

"Is this going to take long?" Francis asked.

"Oh brother."

Finding the safe house and blocking the entrance was easy, now they had to figure out sleeping arrangements. They'd agree on Bill sleeping with Zoey while the other two get their own rooms, but it turned out, there was only two rooms.

"I'm not sleeping with him!" Francis gestured to Louis, who stayed quiet the entire time.

"You have to! I'm not sleeping with you!" Zoey argued back.

"Why can't you sleep with Louis?" Francis tossed.

"You wouldn't want to sleep with me." Bill reminded.

"Right. But-"

"Francis. Just this one night, _please. _It wont even be an entire time when we're taking turns in watch." She pleaded.

Francis went quiet, and that told the rest that the arguing was settled.

"I'll take first watch." Louis finally spoke, and after the long fight they had with the alarm, they said nothing against it. Francis went over to his and Louis' room (his room, dammit.) and closed the door behind him quietly.

Zoey stayed behind as Bill slowly walked to their room and grabbed the knob. "Zoey, you alright?"

"Yeah, I'll be there in a minute. I'm gonna get some water."

"Okay." And with that, he opened the door and entered the dark room.

Louis looked over from their ammo table and to Zoey. "Zo?"

"Yeah?"

"You're not even getting water."

"I know."

"Wanna sit down with me?"

Zoey pondered the question for a bit, and nodded wordlessly. She walked over, grabbing Francis' pistol she'd left there earlier, and followed Louis outside.

"Hey." She said, bumping his arm lightly and gaining his attention as he sat down in a worn out wooden chair. "Did Francis ever say anything?"

"About?"

"Me."

"You?" Louis asked, a bit caught off guard.

"Yes, me. He acted.. pretty protective when he got to me during the horde."

"Well, life-or-death situation there, might as well protect the last lady on earth." He chuckled, staring up at the stars absent-mindedly.

"He didn't seem to have much concern for you two though."

"..I see."

"So he didn't say anything? At all?" The curious woman asked slowly.

"Well..."

"Louis?"

"He acted pretty worried when you passed out in his arms."

"In his- what?"

"You don't remember him carrying you?"

"I remember being handed a gun and being told to shoot at stuff that comes to me."

Louis sighed.

"He wouldn't let me or Bill touch you, but I guess it's because he freaked out over carrying a 'dead' person."

Zoey chuckled. "Dead, huh?"

"Yeah, something really got you when the alarm came. You were pretty screwed- Your breathing kinda stopped for a minute."

"...What else happened when I was out?"

"Nothing really. Just Francis freaking out over you."

"How.. Sweet." Zoey smiled.


	3. New Comers

"Nick, wake up. Niiiiick. Nick!" The southerner barked, finally waking the card shark.

"HUHWAT?" He snorted, sitting upright abruptly and grabbing fistfuls of air where his gun was supposed to be. "Ellis, come on man." He groaned, eyes trying to adjust to waking up.

"Get up. Coach wants you down in five minutes, or he'll be ready to shoot your ass." Ellis teased, hitting a pillow in his direction.

"Ngh."

"Rochelle found some good eggs and is cookin' them for breakfast. Be thankful." He threw Nick's shirt at him, and it landed draped over the conman's face.

The card-shark looked out the window after pulling the shirt off of himself, and noticed it was still dark out. "_Why _so early?"

"Coach wants a head start on things today. He wants to be at New Orleans when those other people are." Ellis began taking a step back to leave the room.

"Other people? You mean the ones we talked to on the radio?"

"Yeah, those."

"We'll get there when we get there. It's not a race or anything."

"Shut up, we're getting there soon." And with that, Ellis left with a hop in his step.

Nick sighed, and began to pull his arms through the sleeves and buttoning the shirt. He slung his coat over his shoulder as he pulled up his pants, walking towards the door as he did so. He could faintly hear the other three talking downstairs about how they where heading to their destinations; what roads to take today.

"...We can head through the highways, it'll help avoid the zombies altogether." Rochelle was heard suggesting; the other two grunting in agreement.

"Maybe I can help make a working car better in case we run into shit. Some kinda zombie-proof vehicle." The mechanic mentioned after a thought. "I don't know how I'd do it yet, but it's better than having our car turn into a _very _big piece of trash."

Nick walked down the creaky steps, and the three looked at him in silence.

"What?" He asked.

Rochelle shrugged, and walked back to the kitchen to check on the cooking meal for the three.

"Where are we heading today?" Nick asked with a yawn.

"If we keep going, by tonight or morning, we should make it just barely out of Savannah." Coach said, staring at the map laid out across the table.

"How far would this 'barely' thing go?"

"Mm..." He thought, scratching at his stubble that was beginning to grow on his face. "Well, we'd still be in Georgia, but we should be able to make it to Brunswick."

"It might be longer than tonight."

"If we run into trouble, yes."

"Then hell with it. Let's get _out _of here." Nick concluded. "Ellis, you said something about fixing a car?" He asked, turning his attention to the boy.

"Oh, yeah. Well..." He said, making a brief pause, resting his elbow on the table. "Might just stick some kind of metal over the windows so they can't break into it."

"Hopefully, some kind of metal we can see _out _of."

"Alright, two shotguns," Coach ran over the list. "Five pistols... a pipe bomb... Three med-kits, a bottle of pills-"

"Nick, you have one in your jacket, righ'?" Ellis asked, walking out of the kitchen. The gambler glared at him.

Coach gave a pause. "_Two _bottles of pills.. anyone good on ammo?"

"Almost out." Rochelle responded.

"Okay. Any melee?"

"I have a bat." Nick handed the woman the said bat as he spoke.

"Alright. How's everyone on health?"

"Nothin' hurt. Ro?"

"Good."

"Nick?"

The conman grunted in response.

"So we're set."

"Let's go!" Ellis smiled, opening the heavy metal door for the others before following, and closing it behind him.

"Okay, what the hell is that?" Nick asked loudly over the obnoxious and constant gurgling.

"Dunno. Why don't you check it out?" Ellis nudged him with a sarcastic grin.

"And get attacked by that.. _thing?_"

The southerner only laughed. "You and your worries."

Ellis walked on ahead, and was unfortunately showered in bile. "Aw, Christ!" He yelled in disgust, wiping himself off.

A bloated creature with boils and vomit on his ripped shirt tumbled and waddled out, clawing the mechanic. In his blindness, Ellis shot him, only to receive another wave of puke and grime. "Aw this shit _sucks!_" He cursed before he was caught in a wave of infected, kicking and scratching at the gore-covered hick.

The other three watched in amusement, before they were surprised to find the horde attacking _only _the poor vomit-bate.

"Help! They're tearin' me up!" He managed to yell over the loud infected and gunshots. Ellis fell to the floor, proving to be incapacitated.

"Ellis!" Rochelle yelled, punching a zombie before shooting it.

"Damn it." Nick cursed, turning to Coach. "Hey, I need you to throw your pipe bomb while I get Ellis!" He shot at a few infected that were clawing at the southerner.

Coach unlatched the bomb, pushing the button and lighting it. "Pipe bomb out!"

Rochelle kneeled down, hitting a few of the diseased, and stopped dead when a screech rang in her ears. "Guys?" She shouted over the chaos.

"I heard it too, just keep your eye out for him." Nick ran over, punching another zombie. Ellis tried clawing into the infected himself out of frustration, and bellowed again when another blow went for his cheek. He managed to grab onto an arm before it hit him, and used it to pull himself up, shoving it away. "I'm hurtin' a lot, guys!" He shouted, grabbing his stomach and crying out after he was hit. His feet collapsed below him, and he curled up, wrapping his head in his hands.

Nick glanced up from a dying corpse to find the mechanic curled up in the sea of more-than-expected-zombies. "Ellis!" The hunter screeched and knocked him off of his feet. "DAMIT! Ro! Get this thing off of me!" He yelled, struggling with the hunter's clawed hands and refusing to let it touch him.

Rochelle ran up, shoving the infected off and began shooting until it fell to the ground, dead. She looked over to Coach, and he was kicking and pulling zombies away from Ellis, who screaming out in pain.

"I never thought, e_ver, _that that..._thing _of nothing could-OW- could cause so much damage to me." Ellis coughed as Rochelle cleaned his wounds roughly, scrubbing at dirt in the cuts.

"Well, if you hadn't gone ahead in the first place, you wouldn't be in this mess." Nick scoffed, crossing his arms.

"I did it so it wasn't _you _getting hurt." He murmured under his breath.

He cocked an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"So uh.. you guys wouldn't get hurt instead." He coughed again.

"Wait, you _knew _what that thing was?" Rochelle asked, stopping her cleaning on Ellis' arm.

"Heard it on the news just a'fore I met you folks. Said it was a uh... 'boomer'...? And that they explode when lit up or shot, an' the shit inside attracts the commons."

"Oh goddammit." Nick cursed silently. "You could've just _told _us about it so we could go _around _it and not have-"

"It was our only path, thankyouverymuch."

The card shark went quiet, leaving the room a moment after.

"Try it again."

"Stop poking me." Louis shooed Francis' hand away, before clearing his throat and pressing onto a speaker button. "Hello? Can anyone hear me?... Please respond if you're out there."

Silence.

"No use. Not like anyone's alive anyway." Bill said, turning away and walking to the office window. Static filled the air from the radio, and everyone's eyes were on it in a heart beat. Zoey moved forward to lean over Louis and press the button.

"Is anyone out there? Anyone at all? Respond if you here me."

The radio drew out more static, before going dead.

"Figured." She said, tossing the speaker off of the table, and turning with the others to head on out.

"I didn't sign up for _this _shit!" Bill was heard cursing loudly behind them.

"It's just water; get used to it, old man!" Francis called, hardly even looking his way as he spoke.

"Zoey, what are you doing?" Louis asked, seeing the woman pause in place, staring at the muddy water.

"There's...What the... something in here..." She bent down, digging into the unsanitary liquid, soaking her clothes in doing so. Minutes later, she drew out an 'Aha!' and stood up, new pistol in hand. She checked inside to find that there were still eight bullets in the clip. "Evidence that there's someone, or there _was _someone here."

"And how do we know they're not dead now?" Bill asked, eye brow raised as he slushed over to her.

"Well..." She thought of how to respond, when a dead corpse came across her vision. She trudged over to it and turned it over to find a bullet hole on the broken neck of the lifeless infected. "Follow the bodies."

"And if they stop?" Francis crossed his arms. Zoey snorted.

"They're zombies. They just keep on going." And with that, she began to follow the carcasses.

"Hello?" Ellis asked, spinning around when there was a noise. "Helloooo...?"

The voice was muffled, but it was sure there. He cupped his hand around his mouth, and called back to his group. "Hey, come here!"

"What is it now?" Nick asked loudly from distance.

"I heard something. Come back here!"

"It's just another zombie. Cut it out and get back into the safe house!" He called back after a slight pause.

"You mean zombies talk?"

He laughed when he saw the gambler walking towards his way, gun slung over his shoulder. "What exactly_ did _you hear?" He spoke through his teeth, annoyance traced in his voice.

"Someone shouting."

"Shouting what?"

"'Guys, this way!' It was a lady's voice, that's for sure." He anticipated. His teammate sighed, and cupped both of his hands around his mouth. "Hello?"

_"Hello?"_

Zoey's head shot up. _Did I just hear...? _She sped up in the water, the swampy fluid sloshing underneath her legs. "Bill." She whispered, and he turned to her. "Am I the only one who heard him?" He shook his head.

"I heard it too. I just thought I was going crazy but... come on. Let's see who it is." He turned to the other two, who were trailing behind. "Louis! Francis! Come on already!"

"Where we going?" Francis asked, trotting up to him.

"Survivors."

"Hello?" Zoey called.

"Wait." Ellis smooshed his finger against Nick's lips to silence him.

The conman swatted his hand away. "'Wait' what? We just need to go out and search for them-"

"Shh!"

_"Hello?" _

"There." He said, running off to the voice.

"Ellis... Ellis! Wait up!" He ran after the mechanic.

Ellis dropped into knee-high water, before walking to find it getting deeper. "Shit... hope it ain't too deep." He looked around for the woman calling out. "Miss! Miss? Where are you?"

"Here! We're over here!"

Ellis ran off to his left. _We?_

"Ellis! Slow down!" Nick was struggling to catch up to the southerner.

"Can ya shout again? Where are you?" He asked again.

"_HERE." _Francis' voice rang through the air, before a gun shot went out and into the sky; Ellis running full speed as best as he could through the water to the new group. "I'm coming!" He yelled, nearly tripping over his own pants and watery mud and grass.

What Ellis saw in the end stopped both him and his now-caught-up teammate. "Damn."

Four of them. A woman, three men. One specifically standing out.

_Those guys on the radio._

"...By any chance, are..."

"You Ellis?"

"Francis-?" They both gasped. Nick shoved Ellis' arm. "That the guy?" He whispered.

"That's the guy." He whispered back.

"Hey." Zoey nudged Louis' arm. "Is that the guy you talked on the radio with?"

He nodded slowly.

"Shit, this is weird."

"Well, what do you _expect? _We _were _going to meet sometime, sooner or later anyways." Nick said after an unneeded silence.

The other five nodded.

"Um.." Zoey coughed. "Any chance there's a safe house around?"

"Yeah. C'mon." The gambler led the group away, out of the swamp.

**Author's notes: I'm going back to fix all of these stupid typos and spelling mistakes. And **_**jeeze**_**, there are a LOT. But, finally looking back to my own story makes me say, 'Hey, this is all because I was bored one day' :D -Dances in my seat-**

**Note: Nothing in the story has changed, except for spelling and a few words and sentences. **


	4. Tank

"-And so when the alligator's mouth snapped shut on his arm, sure, I started laughin'- Who wouldn't? It looked like it hurt him, but that's what he gets for putting the damn thing in there in the first place!" Ellis laughed at his own story. "Anyway, I was laughin' too damn much to notice him spinnin' round and round and round... and when I finally pulled him out, he looked so exhausted and bloody an' shit that he couldn't even describe how much he hated me fer not savin' him in time an'-"

"Oh my god, _shut up!_" Nick finally said, getting annoyed at his tale about 'Keith' that didn't seem to go anywhere. He exhaled loudly, and trudged up the slope that ended the swamp. "Well, we're here." He said, eyes spotting the red metal door to their safe house.

"Finally. Thought the kid would never get quiet." Francis murmured to the other three.

Ellis thumped on the door repeatedly before Coach opened it with an annoyed look on his face. "Don't knock like that again. I already have a head ache from..." He trailed off, his vision catching the new survivors. He opened the door wider, sighing all the while and slamming it shut when everyone was in.

"May I ask just _what the hell _did I miss?" Coach asked, putting a hand to his forehead. "I ask you to bring Ellis back inside, and you bring four new people with you half an hour later? When did _this _happen?"

"I thought you'd be _happy _to see more people still alive." Nick grumbled, crossing his arms and leaning onto a wall full of graffiti.

"Just what were you doing out there, Ellis?" He turned to face the mechanic.

"I was lookin' for some pills I saw on the way here, and all of a sudden I hear _this _little missy's voice," He gestured to Zoey. "an' me and Nick went out searching for them."

"Mm." Coach hummed. He walked over to a corner of the room and grunted as he sat down. He looked up at the newbies. "You got names?"

"Oh, um..." Francis stammered. "Me and Louis were already introduced on the radio," Coach nodded in agreement. "but this is Zoey and Bill."

"How do you fight?" Nick asked.

"Fight?" Zoey raised an eyebrow.

"Like...How well are you with your weapons and shit."

"We're still _alive, _aren't we?" Bill said rather harshly. It's not like he _wanted _to meet new people in the first place. He can take care of himself and his group, known as his only family. _Not _some complete strangers that decided to show up when Zoey found the gun and bodies.

"No-one asked for your smart-ass answer." Nick glared, pushing himself away from the wall.

"No-one asked for your _dumb-ass _question!" He threw back.

"Bill..." Zoey mumbled through her teeth.

"You guys don't even seem to be fine with us, now that we're here in the first place, so why not leave now?" He continued.

"But..." Ellis finally spoke again, having faded into background with Rochelle and Louis who both haven't spoke once since they were introduced to each other.

"_Ellis." _Nick snapped, anger that was building up showing and being thrown at him.

"We barely met each other. We needa.. We needa get to know them better." The mechanic managed to finish, scratching at his bandaged arm.

"Oh really?" Francis broke in. "'Cause it seems that all we've done so far in the past couple of _minutes _was argue, and I didn't even want to know half of your names! I didn't want to get in this mess in the first place. Girl-who-doesn't-talk, _at all_, Hillbilly who talks WAY too much, Snappy ass wipe and some fat grouch. AWESOME TEAM." He narrowed his eyes, fists clenching together the louder he got, closer to Nick. Nick glared at him, backing up, but still attempting to hold his ground.

"Who are you to talk? All _you _have is an office man, some old guy, and a girl who doesn't even look like she appreciates being around you three. Not to mention _you _being the dumb-greasy-vest-wearing-monkey who thinks he knows everything!" He shouted back, insults clearly trying to defend himself.

"It_ is _best to leave. All you will do is insult my weight, say things about Rochelle for being to god-damned stunned to say anything, make fun Ellis who is a great mechanic and can actually help you idiots with cars and keep silent rooms filled with words, and snap at Nick... who can _actually_ aim and put way more energy into fights." Coach added, calmly yet angrily.

"Gee, thanks." Nick growled sarcastically.

The other four went quiet, proving to be beaten by words.

"And you know what," Rochelle finally spoke, voice faintly cracking mid-sentence for not talking for so long, "we _are _and awesome team. So you all can kiss our asses. Especially you, _Francis._"

Nick was first to lead the group out, Rochelle following with Coach behind her, and Ellis still standing there. He stared at the group who all stared back, and took a glance at his leaving team. He looked back at the other four, who's eyes were still on him, with Francis' small snarl, and the other three's pouts in their eyes.

"...I'm sorry." He whispered, but loud enough to hear, before taking off.

"He was the only one." Zoey broke the silence in the safe house. The three men looked at her. "He was the only one to say sorry. The only one to try to give us a chance...To defend us. See how we lost that sweet guy? The others, they _can _be rude, but... Ellis, He'd probably be the only one to come back and help if we were all... stranded or something." She tried to give an example to explain the kindness of Ellis.

"You barely met the guy and you already want to look into him?" Louis asked.

"Well... He _was _nice, wasn't he?"

Louis looked away, nodding a little while the other two kept quiet.

"...How far away would he be?" She asked, stepping out of the open door frame to look for the team.

"Zoey, please don't."

"Ellis!" She called loudly. "Ellis, are you still near-?" Francis clamped a hand over her mouth, muffles continuing shortly.

"Are you crazy? Did you _not _just see the argument we had with his group not too long ago? Do you really want to call them back here?"

"Ellis is the good boy. He didn't do anything to you. _Right?" _She asked, getting closer to him like he'd done to Nick; Francis backing up.

"...No..."

"Exactly." She stepped back outside, running off.

"Those mother fuckers, I'd laugh if they came back crawling on their hands and knees for us." Nick ranted on as the four walked, paths clear of any infected at the moment. "Begging for forgiveness and trust. Trust my ass. They even kicked us out of our own safe house! Yknow, that Francis guy is the one I really would love to shoot if I could, and-"

"_Okay, _Nick." Ellis spoke up. He was _not _in the mood to listen to Nick talk shit about the people he'd just met. All he wanted was to make more friends. But _no, _They had to fight!

Nick clamped his mouth shut, before opening it not even a heartbeat later. "Oh, you mean the guy who _always _wants to talk finally decides he doesn't want to hear someone else talk? Is that it?"

"Not when it's coming from your mouth." The response was thought of and processed so quickly, Ellis didn't even realize he'd made the remark until Nick was staring at him in disbelief. "I dun' want you talking about them like that when you didn't even bother to give them a chance."

"Why should I? I barely even wanted to give all of _you _people a chance." He scoffed.

"You're still with us, ain't chu? You had plenty, and I mean _plenty _of chances to walk out and do it on your own. But did you? Hell no. You need us to survive, but I don't even know if we need you right now. All you're doing is making cheap insults to people you don't even know."

"...I'll stop insulting them then, Ellis." Nick paused.

"I wasn't talking about them." He asked, already fighting back the urge to tear up.

Nick stopped walking and looked at Ellis, seeing how he was struggling to be the big man and not cry, and his eyes softened in pity and realization. "...I know you."

"Do you?" Ellis crossed his arms, swallowing painfully. "What's my last name?"

"..." He fell silent with the others.

"What's Coach's real name? Or what job did Rochelle used to have? We told each other all this, Nick. You jus' don't pay attention. And then you insult us? Calling me a dumb hick every now and then and making fun of Coach for his weight isn't how you survive with people."

Coach nodded wordlessly, looking over to Nick. "He's right, boy. Survivin' is sticking together. Looking out for each other. Not leavin' one another behind."

"Do you guys even know me?" Nick decided to ask, more of an actual question than a 'fuck off' answer to everything.

"Nicholas? I'll bet we know enough. Nick Henry, thirty-five years of age, a daughter with an ex-wife. You used to gamble to get your money to pay before all this shit happened. You do tell us stuff." Ellis answered, recalling the night where they shared how they spent their past lives with each other before the apocalypse happened.

The group fell silent.

"Don't leave us behind." Ellis whispered quietly, voice cracking.

_Funny how I say that. I should've stayed with the other group. _

"Ellis? Ellis...?" Zoey called, hands cupped around her mouth. "Where is he?" She asked herself, lowering her arms as her teammates trailed behind. She turned around. "Hurry up!"

"Who knows how far he's gotten? We barely got out of the swamp and we haven't found him or the others!" Louis called behind.

"Ellis!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, voice echoing.

"Shut up! Do you want to find Ellis or attract a hungry hunter?!" Francis called, walking up to her angrily.

She glared. "I don't know, maybe. I can ask him to eat you and spare the rest of our lives." Francis gave an annoyed look.

"Hardy-har-har. Keep looking."

Bill walked up, rubbing his hands together. "I don't know about you, but that echo _should _have been heard by now. His group didn't leave too long before we did."

"_Ellis!" _

"Did you hear something?" Ellis stopped in place. He looked over to the other three.

"Like...?" Rochelle asked.

"Someone calling mah name."

"That 'someone'," Nick walked up to him. "would probably be Zoey from the other group. Figures."

"'Figures' how?" He raised an eyebrow.

"That it'd be her to be looking for you, not us, _you._"

"Ellis," Rochelle began. "What'd you do when you stayed behind for a second when we were leaving?"

"Oh.. Just.. get our things, righ'..?" He scratched the back of his head.

"What things?"

"Our..." He thought of an excuse. _Anything, please, anything but having to admit, in front of __**Nick, **__that I feel bad for them. _

"What'd you really do, Ellis?"

"I..."

"Ellis!"

He turned to face the woman running up to him. "I found you!" She began yelling excitedly into his chest after pulling him into a tight hug; Ellis' arms out wide in confusion. He looked at the other three who gave astonished expressions.

Zoey's smile widened as she got more excited, before halting her thoughts- throwing her eyes open and pushing herself off of him in embarrassment. "I uh.." She coughed. "Heh, found you..."

"What.. What are you doing here?" Ellis asked, looking at Zoey up and down, seeing how messy she was.

"I.. well..." _Damn, how do I word this? _She pulled Ellis over to the side with her group- a good distance away from his teammates' hearing. "Okay, well I don't know if _someone _in your group told you already, but- wait, you heard that echo, right?" Ellis nodded. "Well, has anyone assumed that we were looking for _just _you?" A slower nod. "Then... I guess it's only reasonable to say that it's true."

Ellis looked up from his gaze to the ground he'd he started mid-conversation, face in disbelief. "Why only me?"

"Because you're the only good one."

"Good one?"

"The only one to say sorry to us, to try to give us a chance and defend us." Louis finally spoke.

Ellis opened his mouth to speak, not even getting a syllable out before Bill shushed him. He stood still as a statue as the ground rumbled underneath him, the others oblivious to it. "We gotta move." He began to drag Zoey and Ellis by the arms back to his group, Louis and Francis following behind.

"What..Why? What's happening?" Rochelle asked, eyes darting around the other survivors for answers.

"We gotta move!" Bill shouted over the slowly growing sound of a large, _very large, _horde. "Get your damn weapons ready!"

Coach immediately threw his gun over his shoulder and took aim, Nick and Rochelle mimicking his actions in one swift motion.

"MOVE!" Bill screamed as a huge arm swung through a brick wall as easily as breaking a delicate stick, a massive boulder of a body smashing through the rest. The giant creature bellowed, swinging it's arms forward to began running for the survivors.

_Have to live, have to kill, have to run,_

_Have to survive. _

"Oh, shit! What is that?" Nick shouted, getting up from a kneeling position to start backing up.

"Forget what it _is, _look at what it's doing!" Ellis yelped, dodging a chunk of cement by a hair.

The monster came barreling towards a car to throw at them, and their eyes went wide.

_We don't even know what this world is capable of anymore. _

Bill took aim and shot at it with his rifle before yelling for everyone to get away from the air-born vehicle.

"Fuck, _Shoot it!_" Francis yelled, emptying a full clip into the giant; the _tank-built _infected showing no reaction. It roared angrily, and started to charge for the eight. Everyone but the stunned card shark split up, and gave the tank an easy target. It screamed loudly the closer it got, and swung its arm, sending Nick flying fast and hard.

"OW!" He shrieked, hitting his neck and head against a car door, and knocking himself out.

"Nick!" Bill screamed, ducking under a tree branch as he ran towards the suited man. _More kids to take care of. _


	5. Visitor

Sound had always been an odd comfort to the man. It'd keep himself from hanging in the thickest atmosphere of silence, and keep things from going too awkward too fast. But tonight, silence was all the southerner wanted.

The low moans and grunts from the sick ones outside were too much for him already. He'd gotten sick of it, trying to go downstairs, but to stop halfway when realizing they'd only get louder. He mentally shot each and every one of those little fuckers if it meant he could sleep, but trudged back to his room.

Ellis twisted the knob and shoved the door open to find that Nick had rolled over on their bed and taken up as much space as possible. He glanced over to the other bed, Zoey barely taking up half of it with her tiny form. She inhaled loudly, stretching out her legs and moving her head to face the other side.

He walked up to the bed and sat down on it, not even disturbing the young woman. He'd wondered what her story was, but knew it was only best to not ask what happened to her pre-apocalypse. Ellis sighed, laying down and trying to ignore a thud as a zombie fell against the side of the house. Morons.

He rubbed his eyes, resting his other arm on his forehead. _How are we gonna get outta this? _

In the very beginning, he knew- he _learned _that these were still people. Very, very sick people that wanted to kick you in the nuts and take your lunch money. But still people. He thought about it, but he realized if he did less of that, and more on survivaling in the hands of a gun, then it would seem like a little game. Some kind of twisted, horror-movie game.

In the beginning. He imagined running up to his best friend, Keith, hug him and tell him all about it. He'd meet up with his cousin, Dave, and share his wild adventures with his new friends. The first nights, he'd holed himself up in a room to keep safe and away from those... _things, _twiddling his thumbs as he stared at the poorly-lit-by-moon-light ceiling.

But reality struck after the first week. He realized nothing was coming back. No ma, no Dave or Keith or sister or any of that. He was alone. He'd managed the will to get out of his room he'd lived in for that long week without much food, grab himself a gun and began shooting. Helicopter blades cut through the air and made loud noise above him as he ran towards the hotel, shoving through some disinterested zombies.

The southerner had climbed so many flights of stairs that he couldn't even count, but by the time he burst through the door to the roof, three others were already shouted at the chopper to come back for the life of them.

Ellis sighed again, closing his eyes at the harsh memory.

It's not like he expected anything more or less (certainly less, but at this point he was sure he was at rock bottom), but he never knew such an illness can be a slap in the face and kick in the ass. He'd tried to stay optimist for so long, but he shunned the very thought. There were so many buts. _It __**could**__ get better, but... _

_Things __**could **__go back to normal, but..._

_Ma __**could **__come back to life, but... _

Ellis' eyes welled up with tears at the thought of his mama. It was a pain to remember just the look in her crazed white eyes as he hit her over the head with a frying pan, knocking the body off of him, and muttering to himself and to her. "'M sorry. I love you."

He knew he'd done right; she would've killed him right then and there in her own house that he grew up in. And yet, he'd hesitated for too long. She had tried to kill him before when an infected, but he managed to knock her out and call an ambulance. When the phone beeped loudly with no signal, he chucked the phone across the room and held the unconscious zombie in his arms, muttering the three overused but meaningful words over and over.

_I love you... _He closed his eyes.

_I love you... _Darkness overtook his thoughts.

_I love you. _

He drifted off to sleep.

Last night sucked. Was it last night? Or had Nick slept longer than needed? Whatever, it still sucked. His neck and head both felt a LOT of pain, and somehow his stomach ached too. What? Was he pounded on or something?

Nick slumped from the bed, noticing Ellis not on the other side, but next to Zoey in her bed instead. He frowned, but didn't dwell on it as he trudged out of the room, the morning sun welcoming him by shining right into his eyes brightly. He squinted, leaning onto the hallway wall for tired support, and walked downstairs and into the small kitchen.

Rochelle was already up, sitting at the table and scribbling into a notepad. Francis was on the other side of the room, leaning against the counter while drinking a 'healthy' amount of beer–– two crunched cans tossed to the side.

He rubbed at an eye, walking closer to the table and yawned loudly. "Morning, Ro'." She barely nodded back, her writing only becoming a bit faster.

"Hey." He turned to Francis, and he looked up from his lazy stare at nothing.

"Hm?"

"What happened?" He asked, raising an eyebrow at the biker's bruised arms and cut forehead.

He shrugged, sipping at the warm beer, and made a face at the taste. "Tank threw a chunk of concrete at us and I took the fall."

"Tank? You already named that walking tumor?" He laughed.

"Well? Named the others, might as well. I don't want to see another and not know what to yell."

"Why would there be more? ONE steroid addict should be enough."

"I've seen more before we met you and your group. THEY," He nodded his head towards the bedrooms. "Haven't. Not by the way they took one look at it and shrieked like little girls."

Oh, here's a story.

"...Where HAVE you seen more?" The gambler tried his luck.

"Well, I witnessed some neighborhood people run away from one, though it payed no attention to me. The little kids were hiding in corners, not wanted to see their moms or dads get pounded to death by that massive fuck." He sipped some more, and looked at the can before giving up at drinking it and putting it down on the counter, shoving it away.

Nick crossed his arms, leaning against the counter himself, and frowned. "And? What did you do?" Rochelle had stopped writing and was looking their way now. He cast a glance at her, before turning back to him.

"...Fuck." He said, hardly wanting to recall that memory. "I ran. I didn't have anything on me to kill it, so I bolted. So did other people. There was a lot of shoving, yelling, screaming... Next thing yknow I'm on the street being trampled by a bunch of scared lunatics. The tank looked at me, and I thought I was dead before SOMEONE NICE ENOUGH decided to stop, pull me up, and run.

"That didn't stop the thing from giving me a nice punch, though." He squirmed, feeling exposed for sharing so much, but finished his little story with a 'that's how it happened' nod.

Nick sighed, thinking he should try to change the subject, but Rochelle beat him to it.

"What do you think will happen if we get out of this?" She asked, leaning onto a hand and making a large gesture with the other.

"Well..." Francis started, but was at a loss of words.

"Sweetheart, that's a pretty big 'if' that we're talking about, here." Nick sighed. The reporter glared at him.

"You always have a way to doubt everything, don't you?"

"It's a gift."

She was about to bite back, but jumped in her seat as there was a hard thud on the safe house door from an infected. She exhaled loudly, and put a hand to her forehead. "Look. All I'm trying to say is that we have smart and strong people, so we have a great chance of survivaling. ESPECIALLY since we have four more people."

"...Well, I'm not picking sides," Francis jumped back into conversation. "but I guess that Nick is right...ish. Eight people, sure. That's more, great. But have you SEEN how many zombies are out there? We don't stand a chance."

"We're still _alive, _aren't we?" She cocked an eyebrow, and Francis smirked at the repeating of Bill's comment. "So if we can kick zombie ass and still be alive, then we can do anything."

"...How kick ass?" Nick smirked as well.

"I could say better, but 'Aliens vs Predator' is rubbing at me right now."

"Which one?"

"SOMEONE has to like the original."

"Eh."

Rochelle giggled, and stopped shortly when she heard shuffling feet. "Who else is up?" She called.

"Me." Zoey said slowly.

"Oh. Good morning." She sniffed at a runny nose. "Get any good sleep?" She asked as the only other woman entered the kitchen.

"Well, I guess. But the infected kept me up for a bit."

"They kept us all up, I'm sure." The reporter stated, walking over to the sink and picking up a plastic cup. Zoey looked around the room, hugging herself and shivering.

"It's cold."

"Mhm." Rochelle hummed while filling the cup with water, stopping about halfway. She shoved it into the woman's hands. "Drink up. I know you didn't get much of anything yesterday." Nobody really did, in fact. Everyone was still hung up on the Tank that they didn't even think about eating.

She walked over to the fridge, opening it and peering inside. Rochelle scrunched up her nose, closing it. "Nothing in there." She muttered.

Zoey turned to the gambler, her unoccupied arm falling to her side. "Nick, we found some canned peas in the cabinets while you were asleep. You can get some if you want."

"Is that ALL you found?"

Francis nodded. "Yup. Eat it or starve, Suit."

"Ugh. No thanks, then."

"Don't like them?"

"No, I'm allergic."

"Really?"

"No. But I'm not eating that horse shit." Zoey giggled to herself as she walked back towards the hallway.

"Oh! Zoey?" Rochelle called, stopping the girl in place. "Could you wake the others while you're back there?" She nodded, and walked away. She walked back upstairs to the other guys' room, turning the knob and slipping in before turning on the light. "Guys, wake up..." She said, not really wanting to be meaningful about it.

Coach groaned at the light, rolling over and hiding his face in the pillow. Zoey turned to the others. "Get up..." She murmured, and took a pillow to throw at Bill. "Wake up!" She finally yelled, and the three men jolted from their slumber.

"Huh? We're up! We're up..." Coach groaned, sitting up.

"Uhuh. I'm gonna go wake Ellis, and if I come back to see you three asleep there's going to be a problem." Zoey walked out of the room and knocked on Ellis' door. "Ellis, I need you to get up."

Zoey walked over to the bed and tugged at his shirt, making the mechanic groan. "Huh?" He mumbled.

"Get up." She chuckled quietly, leaving the room and going back to the kitchen.

"Wait. WaitwaitwaitwaitWAIT." She heard Rochelle shush the boys, and Zoey went silent herself.

"Ro, what's wro-" Francis started, but was cut off.

"SHSHSHH."

Everyone went quiet as she listened to the noise outside.

Well, really, Rochelle was _feeling _something from outside. She dropped her voice to a whisper. "Zoey. Go tell everyone to come here _now. _And tell them to be quiet–– very quiet about it." She shooed the other woman off, and turned back to the other confused men.

Nick looked at her, eyebrows knitting together. "Rochelle...?" He whispered.

"There's a tank outside." She muttered, suddenly very still in her place.

Coach came back behind Zoey, with Ellis and Louis peeking over their shoulders in curiosity.

Francis scanned over everyone, confused expression forming on his features. "Where's Bill?" He turned to Zoey. "Zoey?"

"Bill's smarter than that. He should've figured out like Rochelle that there's a tank. We can all feel it, anyway." the conman stated in a low whisper, walking over to the kitchen light and flipping it off.

Ellis' eyes widened. "There's a who in the what? Did you say a _tank_?" the southerner tried to let his eyes adjust in the darkness while calming down, but couldn't seem to. Not after yesterday's incident. Not after what happened to Nick... "How are we running into another one already?"

"Shit, boy, we didn't kill the last one. That could be the very same one from yesterday." Coach said cooly.

"I don't _want _it to be the same one from yesterday. I don't even want a tank at all!" The mechanic's voice began to raise.

"Ellis, you need to be quiet..."

"We already got damaged enough last time! And we hardly even know how to kill it! It was a miracle we got away, even. That damn giant looked ready to snap us in half, for god's sake!" He continued, ignoring Coach's protests to be quiet.

"Ellis! Shut up!" Nick hollered, making both Coach stop his hushed complaints towards the southerner, and Ellis stop his ranting about the infected. Nick lowered his voice again. "If you really think that yelling about shit is going to make the situation any better than you were WAY off. We need to stay calm, therefore we need to stay quiet. If we aren't quiet, we will be the next human happy meal. Got it?" He asked firmly towards the mechanic's silhouette.

Ellis nodded without a word, slumping into the chair behind him and frowning. Nick's right. He doesn't need to be yelling for nothing. All they had to do was remain soundless until the tank passed.

Nick leaned against the counter next to him, sniffing in and putting a hand to his aching forehead just as another long tremor went through the house.


	6. Runaway

After laying on his bed and trying to ignore the constant shocks from outside for what seemed like hours, Bill got up and walked out into the dark hall. It took him a second to wonder why the lights were out, but he figured it was best to be both unheard AND unseen.

He heard a low sigh out in the living room, and began his short walk down the stairs. "Hey." the eldest greeted silently with his hand in front of him. Man it was hard not being able to see. Bill bumped into a corner of the wall that separated the kitchen from the family room, and grunted in frustration.

"Here." He heard Louis say, and felt hands on his shoulders as he was guided to a couch. Bill sat down next to Ellis, who was slightly shaking. "Thanks, Louis." He turned to the southerner. "You alright, kid?"

"Hm? Oh... Yeah. Just great. Woopie." Ellis sighed.

"I know you don't like the idea of a tank wondering around out there, but you shouldn't be afraid. I haven't seen one before yesterday either, but that didn't mean I should be afraid. It's just another challenge. A big, screaming zombie challenge." Bill heard Zoey chuckle, and he smiled too. "Point is, you shouldn't let it push you down just because it's bigger."

Bill got up, ready to walk since his eyes adjusted. Another vibration was sent through the safe house, and it sounded closer. He sighed, wringing his hands in a nervous manner, but refused to let it show for long. He just gave Ellis advise to not be afraid; He shouldn't be acting how Ellis was not even a minute prior.

The vibrations got even heavier, and Zoey sucked in her breath and held it as everyone stilled their movements and muted themselves, making the room quieter than quiet.

Everyone heard the tank scream, and Ellis' eyes widened as he pulled his legs to his chest, heart thumping loudly.

Nick held his breath as the tremors got faster and louder, indicating that the tank was charging their way. Fast.

The conman gripped on the counter, palms getting moist as his heart too beat against his chest. He took deep breaths, attempting to calm himself and stay brave.

The tank outside was heard slamming into the side of the house near Ellis, and the mechanic attempted to hold in a shriek as pieces of glass hit his arms and around him on the couch.

Gunfire was heard outside, and everyone gasped at the thought of more people.

_More people. _

That thought swam through every person's mind, and they began to panic.

Who else could be out there?

Ellis jumped in his spot, and ran way from the window as the tank was shot again and again, screaming in low pain as it barreled away from the house and towards the other survivors.

"We have to get out of here!" Nick screamed over the loud noise outside.

"What? WHY the hell would we do that?" Bill argued.

"What if it's military? Then we're dead!" Coach stated loudly, catching onto Nick's idea quickly.

"So WHAT if it's military! We need all the help we can get-" Louis started, but Coach stopped him.

"No, Louis. If it's the military, we will be SHOT ON SPOT. Remember those weird messages we'd see as we walked on the streets? 'Shoot all carriers'?" Coach began to stuff their guns into the gun bag, and Rochelle started to strap pistol holders to her thighs, stuffing one in each afterwords.

"Don't worry about the rest. Just get out of here." Nick stated, already wanting to run through the door. He motioned for everyone else to move, and Louis rushed for the door, Francis and Rochelle following.

"Ellis..." He started, walking towards the mechanic who had curled up against the side of the couch. Nick tugged at an arm to get him up, but he wouldn't budge. "Ellis, we have to leave!"

Ellis didn't say anything, but just stared ahead.

"Oh, come _on._"

"What's wrong?" Bill asked, walking towards the two quickly. Nick gestured down to the hick.

"He won't move." Nick kneeled down, handing Bill his gun and scooping Ellis up in his arms. "Let's get out of here!"

Francis opened the door, holding it open for everyone to run out, and waited on Nick and Bill. "Hurry up!"

"It's not easy with this extra weight, Big Guy." Nick huffed.

"It almost hit me." Ellis mumbled, and Nick looked down at him before running out of the door after the rest of the group.

"Ellis... Ellis can you shoot?" the conman asked, catching up to Louis.

Ellis nodded slowly. "You can put me down now..."

"You're gonna run?" Nick's breath got faster and tired the more he ran with a body in his arms.

"Uhuh." Ellis stuck out a foot, and Nick dropped him in place; Ellis landing on his feet and immediately running after Nick.

"Guys..." the mechanic began, looking back at the house, and whistled at how far Nick had carried him. "I don't think we should shoot just yet! Just keep shoving them away because we don't want them to hear us!" He shouted to the rest of the group.

"Got it!" Coach shouted back, and they kept running, refusing to stop.

_We can't possibly stop. We stop, we drop. _

Ellis looked back one more time, to find the place almost out of sight. It was amazing how far he ran in such a short time; adrenaline pumping through his veins. That's what being scared does to you, anyway.

Zoey stopped in her place, bending over and putting her hands on her thighs as she tried to catch her breath. As all of them tried to catch their breath, anyway. They ran for a long time non-stop, and by the time they were sure that they weren't being followed, they weren't going to be caught by some military people, and that they weren't going to die, they finally stopped.

Nick took off his coat, attempting to cool himself off even just a little. They were all sweating after running a fucking marathon, and all they wanted to do was just lay down and sleep.

But of course, that couldn't happen. After Nick caught his breath, he looked around to notice that they were in the middle of nowhere.

"Where the hell are we?"

Other members of their group started to look around, wondering the same thing.

"Oh man, we're lost." Ellis scratched his arm worriedly.

"No shit, Sherlock!" Nick yelled, getting frustrated that they had nowhere to go. Ellis rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, heat rising to his face as he looked away.

"We need to get out of here. We can't just live out here-!" Nick began, pacing around in the dirt and scarce grass.

"How are we going to do that, Suit? I suggest you have any ideas?" the biker threw at him.

Nick went silent, and Francis sighed loudly. He turned to look over the rest of the group– Finding Rochelle laying on the ground in exhaustion and Bill pacing back and fourth as well.

"First things first. We need to pick a direction and start heading that way. Maybe we can find a road to follow." Coach began speaking to everyone, and a few nodded in agreement.

Nick, though, (as always) doubted him. "And what if we don't find a road?"

"Then tough luck. We'll go another direction. As fast as this morning went by, we need to get a move on. We're burning daylight." The former high school teacher grabbed the gun bag, rummaging through it and pulling out his usual hunting rifle.

They hadn't found a house. They hadn't even found a shack. All they were using to keep on hoping was that they'd found a road and were walking along the endless path.

"We don't even know where this road goes." Rochelle muttered.

"We'll find out." Coach said. He had been the only real optimist about the situation, and it was dying down at a fast pace. Even Ellis was struggling to think of something to cheer everyone up.

"Yknow... this kinda reminds me of a story..." the mechanic started, only pausing for a second to see if anyone would listen. "... Me an' my ma..." He swallowed. "We once walked out on this one road outside of my town for hours... Hell, it killed my feet, but at the end of the road in the middle of nowhere, mama tol' me to look up. And next thing you know, I'm staring at the most pretty sky I ever seen. Stars filled up the entire thing, and I was jus' so surprised that I had never seen anything so damn beautiful. Mama then started singin' to me... one of my old favorite songs, too."

"What did she sing?" Zoey asked, looking over at him with interest.

"'Stars Go Blue'." Ellis recalled perfectly, as if that one night was just a day before.

"I don't know it."

"I do." Nick said quietly.

Ellis' head lifted at the new fact by the conman, and he smiled. "You do? You know which one I'm talking about?"

Nick smirked, looking back at him for only a second. And that was when he began to sing faintly and slowly. "Dancing where the stars go blue... Dancing when the.. evening fell..."

"That's it! That's the one!" Ellis hooted on. Nick chuckled quietly. It was nice to hear a smile in the kid's voice.

"Dancing in your wooden shoes... in a wedding gown..." He continued, and even Francis was smiling.

"Haha. Softie." the biker laughed.

"Am not!" Nick said, acting offended. He continued to sing for himself, with Ellis joining in. And hell, everyone could say they were allowed to be surprised that the two sang so good. "Dancing out on 7th street... Dancing through the underground... Dancing with the marionette. Are you happy now?

"Where do you go when you're lonely? Where do you go when you're blue? Where do you go when you're lonely? I'll follow you... When the stars go blue... Stars go blue... Stars go blue... Stars go blue!" The two continued, before Ellis smiled sadly. "Man I do miss mama."

"We all have someone to miss, it's okay, El." Rochelle also smiled sadly at him.

Ellis was about to thank her for her comforting, when there was a large bellow that confused everyone until Nick realized something was heading their way fast.

"Everyone split up now!" He shouted, and just at the last second, everyone dived this way and that. The creature missed Zoey by a hair, but that didn't mean it couldn't come swinging back around to grab her and run off.

"Zoey!" Rochelle shrieked.

"Help me! Kill it! Kill it kill it kill it kill it KILL IT DAMMIT." she howled in pain as the huge infected slammed her into the ground repeatedly.

Nick pulled out a magnum that was strapped onto his thigh, and began to rapidly shoot at the zombie smashing Zoey's body into the road underneath them.

"Come on, die already!" He screamed in frustration. The conman turned to the eldest in his former group. "Coach!"

"Way ahead of you!" He yelled back, bringing his ax down into the infected, making it collapse to the ground.

"Oh..." Zoey moaned in pain, pulling her shirt away from the Charger's grasp and grabbing her stomach immediately. Bill ran over to her and put his hands on her shoulders.

"Are you okay?" He asked. She mewed a little, looking down at her hands groggily. Bill turned her chin up to look him in the eyes, and she nodded slowly.

"My stomach hurts. A lot. And my back. And my head. Even my ass." Francis and Louis snickered, turning away and snorting their laughter.

Bill smiled, doing a better job at not laughing than the boys. He stood up, holding out a hand. "C'mon. I'm sure it didn't break anything." Zoey took his hand and pulled herself up.

"Hoho- wait!" She sat back down, not wanting to fall for being so dizzy.

"Great." Nick muttered, not wanting to have to wait.

"Hay." Ellis nudged on Nick's shoulder before walking off to get a closer look at the infected. Nick followed, shoving his hands in his pockets and whistling at the sight.

"Damn." Was all he could say. The two stared at the infected, noticing the shrunken arm that made no use, and the large one with hardened, cracked skin. It was wearing overalls (more southern than Ellis'), one of the straps torn and fallen off partly. The infected only had one shoe– as for the other foot was swollen and wouldn't fit in a... normal-sized shoe.

"Now, why is it that the zombies in them movies aren't all mutated an' shit, and we got ourselves the ugliest ones alive in real life?" Ellis complained, kicking at the lifeless corpse.

Nick chuckled at the question, as he had wondered that himself sometimes. "I don't know, sport. Let's get back to everyone else." Nick patted Ellis on the back a bit roughly, and Ellis fell forward a little, laughing in embarrassment and pushing the bill of his hat down to hide his eyes.

The two walked back, looking down at Zoey to find her rubbing her back. "I'm sure I'm fine..." She started, but Bill held up a hand.

"You're still a bit dizzy. So you need to sit there for a bit." Zoey sighed loudly, giving up.

Nick let his eyes wander around, and they stopped on Francis and Louis. The two were shoving each other, and every time it got harder. Had he not known how childish they could both be, he would've thought it was a fight. Francis began to laugh, and Louis pretended to run away with a fake scared expression. Nick smiled, and turned his attention to nothing.

As soon as he began to daydream, Ellis had been calling his name for a while.

"Nick!"

He snapped back to reality, and huffed at being a little scared. "We're leaving."

"Okay."

Bill cupped his hands around his mouth, calling to the two men horsing around. "Francis! Louis! GET BACK HERE." He shouted, making Zoey laugh.

"Hehe... morons."


	7. A Loud Cry

"Hey, Zoey." Ellis had called. It was a miracle that the half-large group had found a safe house. Well, a house. A few of the men worked to barricade the windows and front door with whatever they could find, and both the ladies tried to work out the sleeping schedule and arrangements.

"Yeah?" She looked up from her corner in the room. It was her turn to guard the door that hour, and she was slumped in the corner with her gun resting in her lap.

"You can wake up one of the others now. 'Sides, I kinda wanna show you something." Ellis replied, looking out the only window not boarded up.

"What do you want me to see?" Zoey asked, smiling.

"Something." The mechanic smirked mysteriously.

"Ha. Alright. Let me get Francis."

Ellis nodded, and that was her cue to get up and head for the rooms. He intertwined his fingers together, playing with his thumbs by swirling them around each other. "Hm..." He hummed, thinking it was the best idea to take a gun with him.

Ellis walked over to the table where the group had tossed their guns, and he picked up his hunting rifle before tossing it over his back to hang there.

Francis walked in sleepily– looking as if he were still half asleep.

"Francis."

"Hm?" The biker looked over to him with lazy eyes.

"Ima go out with Zoey fer a bit."

"...Huh?" He raised his eye brow in confusion.

Ellis laughed. "Guess I didn't explain well enough. Me an' Zoey are gonna go out side for a little while 'cause I want to show her somethin'."

"Oh, okay. Have fun, I guess." Francis waved him off and sat in Zoey's place just as she came in. Ellis' face lit up, and he grabbed her by the wrist.

"C'mon!" He said eagerly, and Zoey hooted in laughter.

"I'm not sure what's so exciting..." She stated, chuckling as Ellis dragged her out the door.

"Oh man, I think this is just the perfect night... Nice weather, too. I think this'll be good. Great, really." He rambled on, keeping a large grin on his face all the while.

"...I'm so confused." She laughed, and was brought to a halt after they traveled a good forty feet from the house.

"Okay, okay. You can look now." He smiled, taking his hand away from her wrist and locking it with his other behind his back.

Zoey looked around, and then back at Ellis. The southerner laughed at her expression, and pointed up towards the sky.

And the sight Zoey saw nearly took her breath away. "Wow..." She gasped in amazement.

"Uhuh." Ellis smirked. He looked up at the stars as well, pointing out constellations to himself. Each individual star seemed to sparkle on their own time, making the faintest of a little light show.

"This is amazing. I can't believe I've been missing this..." The young woman said, now ashamed to be a such-in-the-city person. "I've seen pictures but... Wow. This is great..." Now _she _was rambling on.

Ellis snickered, and patted her on the back. "I guess we should get back to the house."

"Yea. Thanks for showing me this, Ellis. It was real nice of you." She smiled, and Ellis couldn't help but smile back at the compliment.

Francis had woken up to weird sounds in the past. From birds to gun shots to parades even, but tonight, he'll admit that he didn't know what the hell he was listening to.

That is, until he listened enough to realize it was crying.

Francis sat up abruptly from his corner in the living room, immediately thinking that someone was hurt badly. Or depressed. Which ever. He really just wanted her to shut up.

So he wandered out into the hall, into the kitchen, and back to the living room, trying to figure out where it was coming from.

The biker figured that every time he got closer to the dining room, the crying would get louder. "Hello...?"

Of course, he wasn't always the brightest, but he did think. And the more he thought, the more he figured that it was probably a weird infected like every thing else.

If it wasn't an infected, then they probably would've been exhausted for crying so much and asleep, or done crying by now. And the damn thing just _wouldn't. Stop. Weeping. _

At first, for a _long _time, Francis just wanted to shut the bitch up. But then he thought about leaving it alone. For now. He had no intention of going out of the safe house at 3 in the morning just because some zombie is mourning about whatever.

"Dear LORD." He muttered when the crying got slightly louder. He flipped on the kitchen light, and tried to look out of the small window above the sink. The wood nailed over it did have some cracks to peep out of, but Francis saw nothing with a pulse outside.

He slumped down from his tipy-toe position for looking out the window, and took a seat in a creaky chair at the table.

"I swear to god if that thing doesn't SHUT UP I'm going to kill someone." Francis heard Nick's voice getting closer, before he entered the kitchen.

"Huh." Francis raised an eyebrow at the conman. "Even when tired I never knew that guy-who-shits-rainbows could be cranky." He joked, sarcasm kissing his own mouth.

"Cute."

"I never am happy when these zombies ruin my sleep."

"Well I'm sorry to hear that, sleeping beauty. But while you piss and moan, I'm going to ignore you. Bye!" Nick sang the last word as he walked into the open living room and fell onto the couch, groaning at the obnoxious sound from outside. Francis followed him into the room, but remained standing.

"We needa kill it."

"No, we need to give it a present. DUH, We're killing it! Come on, Big Guy." Nick sat up, eyes narrowed slightly.

Francis nodded. "Well, then." The biker walked to the hall by the front door, and Nick watched him as he picked up a gun and threw it at him.

"What the hell?" the card shark cursed as he fumbled with the gun.

"Go kill it."

"You said 'We'."

"Did I? Oh, didn't notice. Night, Suit. You try sleeping with that shit." Francis walked off to take Nick's place in his bed, confirming to nobody that his so called 'shift' was over.

Nick muttered a few colorful swear words at the biker, before grabbing a flashlight. He didn't plan on killing it with just a pistol, because he knew that would suck even against a regular common. He really just wanted to get a little look at it and see what they would have to deal with in the morning.

Nick placed his hand over the bar-barricade, hesitating to open it. "Should I take someone with me...?" He asked himself, and shrugged it off.

He was just _looking, _after all.

The conman unlatched the bar from it's place, and pulled the door open slowly. Nick held up the pistol anyway, should something go wrong and he needed to shoot something.

"Hello?" He whispered loudly, though he knew it was pointless. He trotted off the porch to walk around the house and find the 'Weeping-Witch'. As he rounded the corner, he sucked in a breath sharply at the sight. He hadn't known what to expect, but the sight scared him a little.

A thin and boney girl with patches of dirt covering her knees, legs and arms was sitting just below the kitchen window, crying with no notice of the man staring at her. Her thin, straw-like dirty blonde hair fell forward into her face when she rocked forward mid-cry, and tossed itself back when she threw her head back.

Nick's own eyes widened as he stared at the infected's, the red orbs glowing brightly in the moonlight. What shocked him the most though, and made his heart pound against his chest, was when his eyes scanned towards the zombie's hands. Long, sharp talons with blood and dirt replaced her fingers, measuring to a good ten or eleven inches.

Nick backed away, bumping into the wall before pulling his eyes away and walking quickly back to the house.

"Yeah... I'm not shooting that thing." Nick muttered to himself, and jumped when he found Louis on the couch.

"Shooting what?" The businessman asked him in curiosity.

"You hear that crying outside?"

Louis nodded.

"Some kind of wolverine two."

"...How...?"

"It's one of those special infected, except this one is a depressed little fuck with claws that can tear into your skin and scrape against the bones."

Louis stared wide-eyed at the conman, mouth slowly opening shock.

"So," Nick continued. "What are you doing up?"

"Mm.. Same reason everyone else is up."

"Everyone's awake?"

Louis nodded, stretching out his arms. "It's been keeping everyone up and I came out here cause I'm sick of Francis' complaining. If he wants it to shut up so badly he should kill it himself."

"That might not be a healthy idea."

"And why's that?"

"Did you not just hear me describe her mutant nails? No way in hell that's happening." He scoffed, crossing his arms.

"... Oh."

Nick gave a stiff nod, and looked out into the dark hall when he heard a door open, and someone clear their throat. He raised his eyebrow, but decided to wait to see who it was instead of calling out.

Nick and Louis were quiet as they heard the bathroom light turn on and a door close. "Huh." the conman shrugged, and turned back to Louis.

"So, uh... Guess Ima take... my... place..." Nick trailed off awkwardly, having never really spoken to Louis directly before. He walked over to a corner, Louis' eyes following him before he looked away, glancing at the door for only a second.

"Night, Nick." He turned over, and drew his blanket over himself.

"Night."

A loud crash echoed through the house, and Nick jumped in his spot. He sat up in an instant, his hands fumbling around and searching for his gun. "Damn, were did I put it?" He murmured, squinting in the dark and feeling against the floor.

Another crash went through their temporary home, and Nick was spooked once again. "Oh man..." Nick rose to his feet, and rushed out of the living room. "Oh man oh man oh man..."

"Everyone okay?" He asked to nobody, and began to panic. "Hello...? Can anyone hear me?"

A low rumble from outside sent shivers up his spine, and he looked around the room anxiously. "Hello?" He called out louder, hoping to get a response.

Nick began to rush to the hallway, opening doors in hopes of finding someone in the house. "Anyone at all?" He opened up on of the doors to find a small closet, and shut it quickly to move onto the next.

The conman was just about to twist the door knob when he noticed a glow coming from the bathroom, and remembered someone walking in earlier.

Nick ran to the door, and knocked on it sharply before shoving it open to find nobody in there. _Why couldn't he find anyone? _

A loud snap brought his attention back to what he was looking for, and he set out to open more doors. _Why were there so many doors in this house? _

Every entry Nick opened led to another empty room, and he began to get worried and confused.

But then something at the other end of the hall moved.

Heart racing, Nick began to walk quickly against the creaky wood floors, and the object in the darkness moved again.

He caught a glimpse of the silhouette before it rushed away from him, and noticed a hat.

"Ellis?" He asked in a very faint voice, his throat suddenly caught in itself.

The figure moved outside, and he followed it, nearly tripping over the leg of a chair resting sideways on the floor. "Ellis, wait up!" He shouted just as another crash rung in his ears, and he began to move faster, jogging towards the door.

_They're coming..._

And yet again, when he opened it, nobody was there. "Ellis!" He yelled, running away from the door.

"Come on, Nick!" The southern voice urged him, and he spun in a confused circle. "Hurry up! You're not going to leave us, aren't you?" His voice echoed, slowly and eerilly.

"No! I won't leave you, Ellis... I promise!" He cried.

Nick gasped and shot up from his corner on the floor, gun laying limply in his arms. Thunder outside rumbled lowly, and he wiped at his damp forehead while breathing in and out sharply.

It was just a dream.

_Just a fucking dream._

Although he knew that everyone was there, the image from his dream made him slightly paranoid and spooked. Nick looked around the barely lit room, seeing Louis napping on the couch.

Nick got up and walked to look at the bathroom door, not seeing a light on. He nodded, sure that he was just overreacting. But then Nick remembered one thing.

_How could he have fallen asleep? _

If the house wasn't secured like how it was now, infected could've gotten in.

Nick wondered about sitting back down, but hesitated. His face scrunched up in thought, and he turned on his heal to head towards Ellis' room.


	8. Reality Train

Lightning flashed blindingly as Nick opened the door, lighting up the room for a short second. He looked around to see Ellis alone on the only bed, and Francis, Bill and Rochelle sharing the floor. Nick walked towards the bed slowly, looking at the southerner and frowning when he saw how frustrated the kid looked in his sleep. He looked at the other three, seeing a small twisted face on Rochelle, and the others calmly relaxed.

_I wonder if he's having a bad dream of yesterday..._

Nick rubbed at his forehead as another roll of thunder rumbled, sitting on the empty space of the bed, back facing the mechanic. He felt him stir next to him, and he looked over his shoulder.

Ellis' mouth was moving slowly, looking as if he were trying to say something in his dream. Nick raised an eyebrow, trying to read his lips, but failed. The southerner began to mumble, and Nick sat up, wondering if he had woken him.

"Dooon'~..." He slurred in his sleep, and turned to face the other way. "...Doon'.. run.. away..."

_Don't run away._

Dream Ellis must've been screaming that at someone, and the real one decided to mimic him quietly. Who would he be saying that to?

He was probably remembering running away from the house. Nick questioned himself if Ellis had been yelling or thinking that while he was falling behind the rest of the group.

Suddenly Ellis began weeping. He hadn't woken up yet, but because he was crying, he would soon. Nick couldn't decide if he should be the good guy and comfort him when he _did _wake up, or if he should leave the room before it gets weird.

Ellis sniffed in, and rolled onto his back before sitting up, wiping at his face even though it wasn't wet yet.

Nick's eyes went wide. He hadn't expected Ellis to wake up so fast.

The southerner stopped brushing his face with his hand as soon as he saw Nick standing in front of the bed, and flushed with embarrassment. It was dark, but the conman could still see his face change to a dark shade of red instantly. "...Hey." Nick shoved his hands in his pockets, acting casual.

"Uh... H-Hi."

"Go back to sleep." Nick practically commanded, nodding for Ellis to lay back down.

"...Okay."

"...Ellis?"

"Hm?"

Nick sat on the bed again, and the mechanic sat back up, raising an eyebrow and tilting his head. "What were you dreaming about?"

Ellis hid his face with his cap. That damn hat. He never seemed to take it off, even when he was sleeping. "I.. Uh..."

"Ellis."

"Everyone left me... They were jus' runnin' and wouldn't stop for me... I dunno. It was a weird dream, I guess.. that was all that really happened." He looked back at Nick, and noticed how he had a slightly concerned look. Ellis looked back down at his hands, locking the fingers together. His face turned pink again, and he pretended to clear his thought.

So to save the kid from any more embarrassment of himself, he might as well share his dream, too. "Mine was kind of like that."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Except we weren't running. Nobody was in this house, and I was just looking around seeing where everyone went." Of course, he wasn't going to mention that Ellis was in the dream, though. Besides, it was kind of hard to explain it to himself.

"It's been a weird night, hasn't it Nick?" The southerner turned to him, watching him with his bright blues. The conman nodded.He sighed, feeling funny for being stared at.

"Ellis?"

"Yeah?"

"You should sleep now."

"Okay."

Nick got up off the bed and headed for the door, but wasn't sure why. It should've been at least an hour, maybe more.He could wake someone else up.

Ellis saw him pause at the door, and raised his eyebrows. "...You gonna leave, Nick?"

The conman turned around and shrugged. "It's not my turn to watch anymore."

"You want me to-?"

"No no, I can get Bill."

"Oh, okay."

Nick walked over to the sleeping eldest, and shook at his shoulder. He rolled over, groaning at being woken up so suddenly. "Hey. Get up." He shook his shoulder again, and Bill sat up slowly.

"What.. Is it morning?"

"Maybe. But I need someone to take my place in watch. Could you do it for me?"

Bill groggily nodded and got up, dusting his pants off and walking out. "Thank you." He called to him just before Bill shut the door.

The card shark spun on his heels to return to the bed and sat on the mattress next to Ellis, the bed slightly creaking against his weight.

"So... You ever wonder what it would've been like had we caught the helicopter in time at the hotel?" Nick poked at the southerner's arm as he spoke, and Ellis shrugged.

"Dunno. All I know is, it sure as hell woulda been better than this." He stated in one slurred breath, shoulders sagging sadly.

If there was one thing Nick never learned in his conning years, it was cheering someone up. He'd always done that for himself, and himself only. His eyebrows knitted together in thought, and he stared at his locked fingers mindlessly.

"...Tell me a story." He said finally after a long silence.

"Huh?"

"Y'know. A story?" The conman grinned slightly.

Ellis laughed quietly, about to open his mouth and rant off with a story when the two men jumped at the sudden large _boom _of a shot gun, the sound now ringing in their ears.

"What...? Bill hasn't even been out there for a minute!" The hick's eyes widened, blood rushing through his body.

The two- _three _people hurried out of the room, Rochelle having her heart leap out of her chest as she was awoken from her sleep.

Ellis backtracked as he nearly slammed into a coffee table in the process of running out, and the older man snickered while pointing at him as he passed.

A minute of staring at the door, the three survivors had raised eyebrows and confused expressions until the eldest of them all came through the door with a semi-auto shot gun laying limp in his hands. He looked at them all with a straight face, already expecting _someone _to have heard the gunfire.

"...What the hell?" Nick was the first to ask, and Bill smirked with a slightly amused gesture.

"It's time that Witch shut up."

"She didn't kill you?" Ellis spoke, and winced to himself at his stupid question.

"Son, do I _look _dead to you?" the man turned away and started for the kitchen, acting as if he hadn't just shot off the head of an infected and possibly alerted the whole damn town to them.

Ellis rubbed at the back of his neck, embarrassed. Rochelle smiled and pat him on the back. "Don't be hard on yourself. That's just the beauty of sarcasm." She chuckled before following the eldest into the dining room.

Oh, _god. _He wasn't going to like this.

Coach had killed enough infected, too much to even _try _counting. At one point, even though he knew they were people, he also knew they were trying to kill him. So, he became slightly okay with killing them if it meant he and the rest of the team weren't being eaten alive or beaten to death.

But now, he didn't even want to look at the infected squirming and running towards him. With his long arm extended to catch the infected's head and stop them from moving any closer to him, Coach's heart sank into his stomach as everyone watched in horror and sorrow.

The little girl struggled against the larger man's strength to snatch a bite of his skin for herself. She brought her thin arms up to pull on Coach's bigger one, and he thrust the small infected to the ground hesitantly.

He looked back at the rest of the group as the squealing girl picked herself up off of the floor slowly, and Bill nodded before walking up to him.

"Coach, it's okay. I got it." He said, frowning.

Coach closed his eyes and huffed gently before letting the elder bypass him and shoot the infected.

Bill jumped at the own sound of his gun and he lowered it in both hands shortly after, his eyebrows knitting together. "...It's over."

"...I can't believe even... even little kids! The mother _fucking infected _ruining people's goddamn lives!" Ellis shouted loudly, kicking at a rusted can next to him. "All of these people just _killed _instantly, vanished. Gone. Wiped out over some stupid infection-"

"Ellis..." Zoey bit her lip and placed her small hand on his jerking shoulder. She knew just how everyone else felt- Losing the people she loved to the same infection Ellis was struggling to not scream and cry about. She'd had her heart ripped out, dropped, and stomped on. The only thing she couldn't relate to was changing herself. That was one of the few things left about her that stayed sane, but it was wearing thin. The more days she spent outside, using guns for things guns weren't meant for originally, fighting to stay alive from weather it was starving to being ripped apart by people who could once say hello and smile, she grew weaker and tired.

On the outside, of course, she looked stronger than most of the _men _in the group, but there's always the hiding inside wanting to break free from it's shell and crumple to the ground in defeat.

Ellis shut his eyes tightly, clenching his jaw and lowering his head. "... It's not fair..." He squeaked out, crushed. Reality was a bitch. And realizing it after so much time of being an optimist instead of being raised to accept death and pain hurt even worse.

"... Come on. We shouldn't be standing around out here." Louis broke the silence, and the group began to nod slowly.

_Say good bye... As we dance with the devil tonight... _


	9. Drained Away

Nobody was comfortable with the situation.

But nobody was going to say anything about it, either. So Francis unlatched the safe house door and the small group began to head out. Infected around them screeched and scrambled towards them before they were silenced with a bullet to the head.

"What- Already? We just got outside!" Nick questioned as he heard the gurgling and belches of the overweight special infected.

"I assume the damn thing was waiting for us." Zoey muttered, firing at another sick one running towards Rochelle. "I never liked these bastards." She grunted, shoving at an infected who decided to get too close for comfort.

"Well, as soon as we get out of here, we won't have to worry about them any longer. For now, keep your eyes open, Zoey." Francis responded flatly, leading the group away from the safe house and towards a small abandoned neighborhood. "Hey, there might be stuff in the houses." The biker smirked slightly as he smashed his foot into a window and crawled through it carefully.

Louis raised an eyebrow at the biker's childish actions, and crossed his arms. "What the hell happened to just opening a door?"

"This is more fun!" He was heard hooting from the inside; Francis' voice slightly muffled from the walls inbetween him and the rest of the group.

Zoey looked around aimlessly in a 'I'm-bored-so-I'm-gonna-stare-off-into-space' manner, relaxing her grip on her rifle. She listened to the bugs' sounds and sniffed the air, a both good and bad scent lingering in the air.

The floorboards creaked as Francis walked slowly on them, wanting to check the rooms of the houses without running right into an unwanted infected. He turned on the flashlight connected to his semi-auto shotgun, and waved it around slowly to inspect the room.

The biker froze when he heard a bull-like snort coming from around the corner, and he wanted nothing more but to damn his luck. Not like it would do much.

God, he can even see it's arm poking into sight from behind the wall! The infected inhaled before snorting loudly again. It began to sniff in a few times, as if it could _smell _him from there, and started to stomp around in search of it's newly detected prey. Francis pressed himself against the wall and crouched down, his breathing speeding up.

_This is never gonna work, it'll figure out what I am!_

The bulky infected began to enter the room he was in, and the biker's breath hitched. It begin to look around the room, taking in a large amount of air before huffing it out as Francis' eyes widened. It was kind of odd, seeing an infected this close without them attacking.

Yet.

Especially _this _infected, who was known to the group to be aggressive and destructive.

The mutated sick person walked up to him loudly, and his breathing became shallow as he shut his eyes tightly. The infected stood over him, sniffing in his scent before stomping away, unsatisfied.

Francis sighed with relief and rushed off to where he came from. He jumped through the window with amazing accuracy and flexibility, startling the rest of his companions.

"What took so long, kid?" Bill asked, tilting his head slightly.

"Well..." He breathed, "funny story. We gotta split before-"

A long howl-like scream erupted through the air, and everyone looked just in time to be rammed into by a charger. People went this way and that, being thrown off of their feet and into the ground, while Rochelle was the infected's target.

"Hel- Oh go-_od!" _She screamed as the air in her lungs was knocked out of her, and she grunted in pain as the large hand gripped around her thin waist and rammed her into the dirt and sharp rocks beneath her. She tried to claw at the charger's fingers with her own, but the zombie was unaffected.

Zoey was the first to get back on her feet, and when she realized that the other woman was pleading for someone to help, she ran up to the infected and knocked him back a little with a body slam.

The charger released it's tight grip on Rochelle, and she began to cough and gasp for air as Zoey ran backwards as she shot at the zombie now running after her. Louis looked up from his kneeled position on the ground and picked his gun off of the ground to help her with shooting.

The charger eventually fell to the floor, unmoving as everyone stared at the body. Nick pulled his gaze away to look over at Rochelle and ran over to her.

"You alright?" He asked, and pulled her up into a sitting position. She scrunched up her face and hissed when she moved her frame around. Rocks and dirt stuck to her back painfully, and the conman helped dust her off, swatting away what he could off her shirt.

"I guess I'm fine. Enough. My back and waist are probably bruised, and I think I now know how Zoey felt." She chuckled half-heartedly, walking over and bending back down to pick up her dropped weapon.

"Yknow," The reporter started, turning back to face Nick. She patted at the jar strapped to the side of her waist. "Surprised this thing didn't break. Bile all over me while getting smashed into the dirt would _not _be fun." She smiled.

The suited man nodded, half smiling back, and his eyes suddenly widened. "We still haven't killed that vomiting blob..." He muttered, beginning to look around cautiously. Rochelle nodded, looking around with him, before they both jumped at the sound of three of their team mates suddenly moaning.

"Oh man, this is _disgusting!_" The two heard Ellis yell, and turned to see him quickly trying to wipe off the vomit all over his front, as well as Coach and Francis.

"Ellis-!" Nick began as the boomer started to waddle towards him and claw at the southerner.

He sped over and shoved the over weighted infected away from the mechanic, and shot at it, showering himself with puke and grime. "Fuck!" He cursed, attempting to swipe off the revolting body fluids.

"Who DIDN'T get puked on? Those people help us out with the infected!" Coach asked quickly over the slowly growing horde. They all clumped together in a not-so-circle, the cleaner survivors standing guard outside of their little huddle.

"Here they come... Nick muttered through gritted teeth, his eyes stinging from the vomit surrounding it.

The infected finally caught up with them, closing the distance with swings and kicks, the more greedy ones get through the survivors in the front to beat on the barf-bag-victims.

Zoey shoved away the infected trying to push past her and shot at them with ease. The crowd seemed to get larger and larger, as if each one that was shot down was replaced by three more. The quiet noise that once filled the street was long gone and substituted with screeching and grunting.

She wheezed slightly as an infected dodged her rifle and punched her in the stomach, and she swung back to hit them in the face with the butt of her gun. It fell to the floor, grabbing it's nose in pain before scrambling to get back up. Zoey shot at it before it could get any higher than the knees, and she continued to shove and shoot other infected.

It was meant to be their usual routine when they were meant to fight a horde, fighting them off while staying together and protecting each other.

Which was why she was confused when she was suddenly farther away from her group than she thought. She tried to get back closer to them, hitting the zombies out of the way.

But then her heart sank as she was on the ground and being pulled away by a long, slimy tongue.

"Help-!" She cried, nearly dropping her weapon as she tried to untangle the disgusting 'rope' that began to tighten around her. The smoker reeled her in and began to claw at her shoulders and neck, and she struggled to breath as she fought to pull her pistol from it's brown holder.

She aimed it upwards, looking up to make sure it was beneath it's jaw, and pulled the trigger. The tobacco-infected collapsed on the ground and Zoey fell backwards with it. She began to cough as a puff of smoke slowly filled the air around her, crawling away from the cloud.

Zoey was just about to get back up on her feet and continue back towards her group, when her eyes widened. She realized the smoker had dragged her further than she had originally assumed, and she was now in some part of the beginning of the woods.

"Guys?" She started to call, coughing a bit at the sharp breath caught in her throat from the smoke. Her eyes watered a little at the pain around her neck.

Which way was she supposed to walk? She hadn't gotten too far in the woods, but it was obvious to her that she had gotten turned around, and was now not so sure on which was was out. She could end up deeper in for hours, or out sooner than she hoped.

_It's okay, I can just follow the sound of the horde! _She thought, but cursed everyone and everything to hell when she, surprisingly, didn't hear anything other than nearby infecteds' moans.

Zoey cupped her hands around her mouth, letting her gun fall to her side. "Hello? Can you hear me?"

They were probably still distracted with the other infected to notice her absence. She picked a direction and began walking, hoping it was the right way.

"Guys..." The young woman called out weakly, not even hoping for a response anymore. It could be to give herself sound so she wouldn't freak out about how quiet it was.

Zoey trudged through murky waters that reached just below her knees while pulling her gun from it's position slung over shoulder and readied her weapon in her sweaty hands.

She wasn't sure where the hell she was heading, but it was obvious to anyone around that the imaginary path she had chosen was probably the worst one. The horror-movie-addict sucked in a large breath to start shouting, but held it in when she heard movement a little ways back behind her.

Whether she was to be scared or relieved was beyond her. Has her group already found her?

Zoey shook her head. She wandered far away from the road she was once on with everyone else in the short amount of time she'd been missing. Maybe the group hadn't even discovered that she was gone, yet.

Coach rammed the butt of his gun into the temple of the last infected, and huffed loudly. He looked back at the rest of the group and sighed.

"Everyone alright?" He asked.

Nick pulled himself up from resting his hands on his knees, and looked around. "I'm fine."

"Same here." Ellis added.

"I'm alright." Francis nodded, but halted in his place. "... Guys?"

"Zoey!" Bill was already calling, and the other survivors began to panic. "Zoey, where are you? ZOEY!" His voice echoed down the street, and he balled up his fists in frustration.

_This wasn't supposed to happen!"_

"ZOEY!" Bill screamed as loud as he could, and others began to shout with him.

"Where do you think she could've gone?" Louis asked, scanning around the road once more before looking back to Francis.

"Hell if I know. One of the special infected could've dragged her off. Or steered. Or charged. Or even chased..." The biker listed off. Neither of the two liked any of the ideas, and panic struck them even more.

"Ohhh!" They heard Rochelle moan, and turned to where she was. The reporter was clinging onto Ellis, tears starting to water and she tried to control herself. Ellis was patting her on the back and nodding to whatever Rochelle was mumbling, while the woman's shoulders shook as she began to cry.

"She was real close to me... A best friend. We knew them for how long, Ellis? About a week? I can't believe we lost her that easily-"

"Now hang on, Ro'. She probably hasn't been gone too long. An' I'm pretty sure we'll find her and bring her back in no time!" The optimist smiled, pulling away from Rochelle to look at her in her large brown eyes.

She stared at him for a second before half smiling back, pulling the mechanic back into a hug. "Thanks, Ellis." Rochelle gave him one last squeeze before she parted herself from him and began to wipe at her already-soaked face.

Francis slowly pulled his eyes away from the friendly sight he had watched when Louis tugged at his vest. "Hm?"

"Man... Bill is freaking out..."

The biker nodded, watching at the eldest pace back and fourth with a hand to his forehead. "I've never seen him like this since... Since Nick was knocked out from that tank. And even then, Nick was still there. He didn't have much to worry about..." Francis trailed off, not really feeling like talking.

"We need to find her." The two heard Bill say. It wasn't a smart thing to say, but it was the only thing he _could _say at the time.

Louis scratched at his temple and checked the amount of ammo he had left. "He's gonna go _nuts _if we don't find her. She's like a daughter to him..."

And Bill was like a lost father to Zoey.

**Author's notes: Sorry dudes ._. I tried to fix this chapter as much as possible and make it... make more sense, but I never liked this chapter. Not even when the idea struck me and I was writing it. I think I sort of just wanted to write it, get it over with, and continue with something a little better.**

**But for the life of me, I'm starting to struggle with chapter 13 ahead. I'm losing my grip on my characters D:**


	10. Unanswered Thoughts

"Eighty-nine bottles of vodka on the wall, eighty-nine bottles of vodka... Chug it down, kill a zombie, eighty-eight bottles of vodka on the wall..." Zoey half-heartedly sang in a slurred voice as she trudged through the mud and filthy water. "Where are they?" She wondered aloud, frowning.

It was never fun to be surprised, but it was rather funny, in a sick way, when the noise behind her only got louder and louder, and she spun around just in time to shoot the chest of a lurking hunter. The hooded infected had flung back in surprise, but stumbled around as it placed a clawed hand over it's chest in an attempt to catch the spewing blood. Zoey had taken the chance of shooting the distracted hunter again in the jaw, and the thing fell into the water with a cry.

Zoey sucked in the deepest breath she could take before she started shouting at the top of her lungs. "GUYS? CAN ANYBODY HEAR ME? … IT'D BE REAL NICE IF I HAD A RESPONSE FOR ONCE."

She paused abruptly when she heard other shouts. Zoey was confused on whether she had gone delusional in one hour of being by herself and started hearing voices, or she was actually listening to the screaming of other people. She shrugged over her mental debate, and began to run towards the source of the noises, dodging trees and uninterested infected.

"Hello?" She called loudly, running towards nothing. The noises stopped, and her heart sank. Oh _come on. _

Zoey cupped both hands around her mouth and took in another large amount of air. "Hey! I can't tell where you are!"

* * *

_They COULD be too busy fighting off infected to shout for her. _

"Zoey! Zoey, where are you?! ZOH-WEEY." Coach shouted, his deep voice carrying out and echoing around the group.

"Hey, I know it's probably not the best idea yet, but shouldn't we be LOOKING for her instead of standing around and yelling her name? If anything, she probably isn't even close enough anymore to hear us." Nick raised an eye brow slowly and crossed his arms together.

Ellis scoffed childishly. "You kidding? With Coach's voice, _Atlanta _can hear us."

"Look, I'm pretty sure that Coach has a loud voice. We all know that. Moving on. We need to actually try and _find _her."

Ellis bobbed his head around in a whole 'Seems legit' manner, and turned his bobbing into a straight nod. "Alright."

Nick turned to the rest of the group. "Okay, wanna move around?" He asked, hardly even waiting for an answer before continuing. "If anything, she would have been able to see us and would've walked right on back if she were still on the road. I suggest she might've been carried off to the woods over there." He said with a nod.

"Just a hunch." The conman finished.

Bill was sitting in the corner, on the porch of an old house with his chin in his hand. He sighed, bowing his head lower and stared at the ground in slow thinking.

_I can't believe I lost her so quickly. _

He stood up quickly in anger, seeking revenge on whoever would take her from his hands so suddenly.

"Then I suggest we leave NOW, kids." He started, and began walking off of the street. Who could've done this? Another charger? What if a jockey got her? What if- oh god... _please _don't be dead, Zoey!

If he saw her limp body with bruises and cuts all over her because he couldn't be there to save her, he didn't know what he'd be able to do.

"AH! Oh god, help!" Zoey thrashed about as a back-humper jumped on her. It whinnied and giggled as it clawed at the unfortunate woman's face, and she cried out in pain. "Owh! SHIT that hurts! Get off of me you freak!" She demanded pointlessly.

Zoey pulled at the jockey's arms, managing to get them away from her face, but only for a second before the tiny crab-like infected latched it's limbs back onto her skin. She grunted in frustration and pain and howled out when it's claws struck right below her eye. She threw her body back against a tree, cringing slightly at the sickening crunch of the jockey's hunched back. She pulled herself forward and slammed herself against the tree again, and the infected squealed as it fell to the floor.

Zoey gasped for air, falling into a half-bent position with her hands on her knees, and looked over at the twitching form beside her.

The thing is still _alive? _

She groaned as the infected twitched again and slightly laughed while it wheezed.

_Moron._

She picked up her dropped weapon once again– the ground seemed to be the gun's favorite spot– and aimed it carefully at it's head. The infected stared at the barrel of the gun with yellow-red eyes, and she swallowed in disgust. She took a step back and pulled the trigger, barely missing the jockey's blood splatter.

Zoey sighed, turning on her heel and walking away from the mess.

_Man, it was glad to be out of that water._

Zoey shivered slightly as a small breeze blew on her soaked legs, but she shook it off. She searched her pockets for any clips left, and sighed slowly when she realized she was using her last one. She slid it open to check how many bullets were left and bit her bottom lip when she saw only six left. She'd have to use them carefully.

Zoey had run out of ammo in her two pistols a while back and tossed them to the side when she found no use for them. Her fists and leg strength will have to do for now.

She looked up at the sky to find that it was already night. The young woman frowned, not taking a liking to the idea of being alone out here in the dark.

"... Hellooooo..." She called out, swamp water dripping from her bruised and cold legs. Her teeth chattered as she bent down to roll up her pants and squeeze some of the cold liquid out. Zoey let her rifle drop to the ground and she sat next to it, grunting at the slight paint the bending gave her.

Her eyes were focused on her shoes and the water falling around it, when a small flash of lightening lit up the sky briefly. She looked up to examine the road, and gasped when another bolt lit her surroundings and exposed a human body standing in the middle of the road.

_Staring _at her. _Watching _her.

Goosebumps ran down her spine, and she watched with wide eyes as the place where the short person was standing became empty as another light came and went.

"... I need to get out of this storm..." She told herself, and got up to rush towards a house on the corner of the street, completely forgetting her weapon. She ran towards the dimly lit porch, but stopped dead in her tracks when a loud snap sounded off slightly behind the building.

"..." Was she supposed to respond?

"... Hehh... lo?"

A deafening crack of thunder echoed around her, and more lightening lit up the dark. Zoey gasped when she saw a man with his head ducked down, his hat shadowing over a large portion of his face. He stepped forward slowly, his steel-toed boots clacking on the pavement silently. He edged closer to her, and Zoey backed away for distance.

"... Who..-"

"Ya lost little missy?" A southern accent invaded her hearing, and everything suddenly went black.


	11. Phantom

"Hey... Hellooo...? Hey, I know yer tired an' all, but I need you to get up."

Zoey sat up quickly in surprise at the voice, and immediately regretted it. The two moaned as their heads collided, and they jerked back to rub at their throbbing heads.

"Ow... Now why would'ju do _that?" _The southern accent interrupted the slight ringing in her ears. She glared at nothing in particular, and turned to the man kneeling in front of her.

"Can I ask you what I'm doing here?" She asked while scanning the room with her eyes.

He raised his brown eyes to the ceiling and pressed a thumb to his lip to bite at a nail in a terrible habit, pretending to think about his answer carefully. "Well, you just came here by yourself. I just showed up and brought you in after you decided to pass out over nuthin'." He clapped her on the back and laughed, standing up to move away from her and sit at a wooden chair in the corner of the room.

She hummed, sitting up slower than before, and rested her weight on her hands. "What's your name?" Zoey asked the red-head as he chewed and smacked loudly on some gushers he'd picked up off of the small table beside him. He held him out in an offer as he swallowed and cleared his throat, and Zoey shook her head in the slightest of disgust.

"Well, my name," He smiled, taking off his hat and shaking his long-ish hair around. "is Keith. Pleasure to meet ya, miss."

She nodded and brushed a lock of hair behind her ear. "I'm Zoey." She introduced slowly, and thought about the man's name and face.

_That hat, it looks just like Ellis'... Wait a second... _

"Hey-" She started, wanting to ask if he knew-

"Oh man, a story would be real fun righ; now, don'tchu think? Well, I got one. See, I have this best friend- well, I _had. _I don' know where the hell he is right now," Keith laughed forcefully, "but he's pretty awesome. You'd love him if he met him. See, his name-"

"Is Ellis?" Zoey interrupted, raising an eyebrow.

His eyes widened behind his dark red bangs. "Well, guess you... guess you already met him." He snorted. "That's amazing! So you know where he is? I can't believe the kid's alive! Well... not really surprisin', even if I _was _the tougher of us two..." the southerner trailed off. Zoey nodded and sighed.

"Well, he and I were with the rest of my- _our _group...s.. and I kinda got separated from them when I was dragged off... I've been calling out for them since-" She stopped herself to look out a window, and noticed it was early daylight. "-since yesterday afternoon. We had just gotten out of the forest when I was pulled back in and got lost in it." Zoey took in a huff of air and looked to her feet on the floor.

Keith's lips curled into a small frown, before he half smiled and took in a breath to talk. "Well, ain't gonna do any good sitting around here! Why don't we pack up some shit in here, and go out an' look fer them! I'll bet we can find them in no time, together." He grinned and got up from his creaky seat to return next to Zoey. He offered a hand to her, and she pulled on it to stand.

"And that, we shall." She chuckled.

"Do you think she went through here?" Nick asked, plucking the empty hand gun from the dirty water.

"No doubt. She _has _to be near by, an' if she ain't-"

"_Isn't._" the conman corrected.

"... _isn't _near us, then she must be pretty damn fast for coming all this way in one day."He said, wiping some sweat from below his nose.

Nick rolled up his sleeves after getting too hot for the humidity from the rain storm last night. It had both put a dent in finding Zoey and staying safe in the dark while being blind of the heavy water falling on them.

"We'll give it a shot. Just, who knows _how far _she's gone, now."

"... You guys realize just how fast she went when she was trying to find you guys the _first _time, right?" Bill commented, remembering how excited she had been when she first heard Ellis' voice and discovered that there were more survivors close by.

"She doesn't really have a reason to go so fast, this time. She's LOST, and unless she were being chased, you'd think she wouldn't get too far." Ellis argued.

"... Alright. Let's just get out of this hillbilly pig stye and get back on the toad. I didn't like the idea of coming into a swamp the first time, and I sure as hell don't like it the second. … with my goddmansuitbeinghorriballydestroyed..." Nick carried off his sentence as he waded through the murky water, bickering silently about his ruined suit.

"Cut your bitching, Nick. You could always get another one." Bill grumbled, and Ellis laughed to the side at the middle finger the conman tossed at the eldest.

"Do... you wanna- wait- don't you wanna heal up first...?" Keith was trying to get her to listen as Zoey threw cans to the side in piles.

"Can't, need to pack." If she was going to find her friends, she was going to find them as soon as possible.

"Well, I ain't doing it for you." He raised his hands in the air and shook his head, leaving the room.

"... He's weird." She chuckled. Zoey went back to rummaging through the cabinets, tossing the expired and unuseful food to her left, and piling the good to the right where she could sort through and pack up later. She threw the last two cans to the left and climbed off of the counter. Her knees buckled from her weight resting on them for so long, and she nearly fell to the floor had there not been a wall next to her to catch her balance.

Zoey straightened up and stretched herself out, locking her fingers together and raising them above her head. Keith walked back in, popping his knuckles loudly and started chattering on about how warm it was outside. She blinked, hardly listening.

"-and you might wanna tie that jacket around yer waist or somethin', because if you go out with that thing on, you'll fry and sweat like a freaking pig. Carry light, too. It's never fun lugging around so much shit when it's that hot outside."

Zoey nodded, stripping her red jacket from her arms to hold it in her hand. She scrunched up her nose at the stench taking off a piece of her clothing made. Man, she needed a bath.

As if reading her thoughts, Keith was rambling on about that, too., "The water is working here if you wanna get in the tub and wash all of that gunk off. I ain't one to complain, but... I think we all know ya need one." Zoey turned back, and laughed embarrassingly at how he was waving a hand in front of his nose to prove his point of her odor.

"I'm sorry, it's been a long while since I've last seen a shower with working water. Thanks." She nodded, and Keith pointed in the direction of the bathroom. Zoey walked off, snatching a towel from the hallway closet on her way there, She pulled her hair out of it's pony tail once she was in the room and closed the door behind her to started peeling her revolting clothes from her body.

She slightly jumped at the knock on the door, and turned to it as if it;s only going to respond if she were looking. "Um.. Yea?"

"Hey, Zoey? I can wash your clothes for you while you're cleaning yourself, if you want." A muffled voice asked.

"Alright." She accepted the offer gratefully and grabbed her clothes off of the floor. She cracked the door open and shoved them through, grinning at how nice he was to her. "Thank you, Keith. Really."

"You're very welcome." Was all he said before walking off to the laundry room. She closed the door once more after withdrawing her hand, and walked over to turn on the water. The shower hissed briefly before smoothing out and running the clean water around the bath tub. She flipped the plug so the water ran through the hot shower head and turned it to the 'H' for hot setting.

Zoey strode back to the mirror, and was surprised when she saw just how exhausted she looked. Faded pink scratches ran along her thin cheeks and neck, her skin looking worn and slightly swollen. There were the faintest of bags under her eyes for the lack of sleep during restless nights since day one of the sickness. She removed her towel, looking at the rest of her figure. Zoey gasped when she saw faint bruises on her hips and stomach from her first hunter attack, and ugly scars running along her back and thighs. A deep wound on her right leg stood out from when she was badly beaten during the car alarm incident. Bile and blood surrounded her body all together, and she shivered, not wanting to look at herself any longer.

She turned away from her reflection and tested the water with her hand. She climbed in when it reached a satisfying temperature, and had to stiffle a moan when she felt just how amazing the hot water felt on her skin. The young woman dipped her head into the water and scrubbed at her hair, slightly disgusted at how the water turned a deep pink before fading out and changing to a light color of green and yellow.

Zoey hardly realized until now how heavy her hair was from the vomit and gore as it washed away, and she began to hum her own little tune as she cleaned the rest of her thinning body. She bent down in the tub to brag a rag off of the floor and wipe at her dirty feet with it. She brought it back up to wash at her neck, hissing quietly when remembering her cuts the hard way. Zoey's skin slightly stung and throbbed as she washed behind her ears and her shoulders. She sighed, wishing she could stand a little longer in the warm shower, but turned to put the water out.

She stepped out of the bath tub, squeezing some water out of her hair and grabbing her towel off of the closed toilet seat next to her. Zoey wiped at her face, sniffing in and closing her eyes in the cloth. Being clean felt... _awesome. _

She dried the rest of her body and wrapped the towel around herself before walking out of the humid room. The young survivor looked both ways down the hall, and headed for one of the rooms to search for temporary clothes to wear while her others washed. She walked across the room and yelped when she tripped over a metal box.

Zoey tilted her head in curiosity, holding the towel up at her chest with one hand as she stared at the black little box down at her feet. She crawled over on the rough carpet to pick up her finding, and frowned when she discovered that it was locked. She looked around the room, searching under the large bed and fumbling around in drawers. Zoey 'Aha!'d silently when she picked at some keys, and pulled them out. Zoey shoved them in the little slot and turned the lock this way and that before finally managing to open it.

The metal box rattled as coins and other small objects slid around in it. Zoey's eyes widened with a slow smile as she pulled out a hand gun from the box. She dug around some more in it, finding only two clips for the gun. She shrugged, shoving one of the clips in and moving the other to the side. The rest of the stuff in the box were no use to her; only a few twenty dollar bills and a note.

_Dear Kelly, _

_We left this gun and some money for you, with this dangerous flu and all. _

_Take care and hope to see you soon, Mama._

Zoey crumpled the paper and tossed it to the side. _Well, Kelly, you were a little late. _

She crawled over to the large dresser and stood up next to it before opening each drawer. Socks. Underwear. Clothes! The dull-colored pants and shirts weren't her style, but she'll make do with the sweat pants and loose tee.

Zoey walked across the room, shut the door and locked it for privacy, She let her towel drop to the floor and turned on her heel to start putting on the baggy clothes. There was a knock on the door right after she had finished pulling on the shirt, and Zoey opened it faster than she needed to.

Keith had his fist raised in the knocking position, and he jumped in his place. "Oh, hiya." He smiled. "jus' came by to tell you that your clothes are drying now, so it'll be done in... maaaybe an hour. You doin' okay?" He tilted his head slightly, and Zoey nodded.

"Just great." She smiled back.

"I can cook somethin' up if you want, or make you some-"

"Keith, please. This is too much. Besides, we need to head out on the road, if that's alright with you."

The southerner nodded in understanding, grinning. "Okie-Dokie. You sure you still want your other clothes, though? 'Cause... They're torn pretty bad."

Zoey curled her lips into a line and knitted her eyebrows together in thought. She nodded quickly. "I wanna keep the clothes until we get to safety. They're... Like my.. Like my little battle outfit." She chuckled. Keith laughed back and tugged on his own shirt with two fingers.

"Same here."

Nick ran a hand through his long black hair, sighing. Everyone was confused on whether they wanted to be happy or nervous that Zoey was dropping her stuff all over the place. Louis had gone ahead of them at one point and found her almost-empty rifle on the pavement they were walking on.

"... Maybe she's down the road, or something. We know Zoey well enough to know that she couldn't stay out in the dark by herself, no matter how talented with self defense and guns she is. I'm guessing she went and got some shelter, if her missing presence isn't enough of a clue." Rochelle pointing to the houses to prove her point, and a few of the men looked to where the reporter was gesturing. Coach nodded.

"Then what are we standing around here for? Let's start looking in the houses!"

Bill began to lead the group with a jog towards the first house excitedly. If she were gone any longer, he just might go even more a little insane.

Ellis began to trot to catch up to him, a funny feeling in the pit of his stomach, telling him that he had a surprise waiting for him.

Keith set down the binoculars on the small coffee table next to his chair, looking away from the back house window. "Hey Zoey, we got company. Get your gun."

"... But, I don't _have _my gun..." She said, quickly remembering how she had left her rifle out on the street. She was looking out the same window as she spoke, and was surprised when she was handed an AK47. "Isn't this yours?"

"Nope. I just borrowed that one from where I found it here by the front door. I have another two hunting rifles in the back closet." Keith said with a nod towards the said closet. Zoey nodded, looking down at her new weapon in her hands and frowned. "You're alright with usin; that one, aren't you, Zoey?"

"... I've always used a rifle, so that's always been my comfortable case." She said hesitantly, and Keith only kept that same grin he'd been wearing since she met him.

"That's okay. Just gimmie a second to get them."

Zoey nodded as the southerner trotted off around the corner to retrieve the said weapons, and she looked out the window, noticing the growing pack of infected ready to break down their door. There were already loud bangs at the metal entrance, and Zoey nearly winced at both their stupidity, and sad hunger for human flesh. She could smell the decay of their own skin from even in here, and was hoping Keith would be back any second.

There was a sigh and footsteps heard as the southerner walked back to her with guns in his arms, and he tossed one to her. "Ready to blow off some heads?" He smirked. Zoey giggled and nodded, checking her ammo. There was a full clip ready for her in the weapon, and she nodded to herself while pushing it back into place. She looked back at the door, resting her arm by her side.

"How do you think they figured out we were here?" Her eyebrows knitted together.

"I... don't have a clue." The southerner said with semi-wide eyes.

Zoey looked down to her feet, not really knowing what to say, and shrugged. "... Well, we don't really have time to worry about it," she pointed to the two windows on either side of the door. "because it looks like they're about to get in."

Keith nodded, holding up his weapon and pacing quickly to the door. He looked back at the younger of the two and half-smiled. "_Now _yew ready?"

Zoey chuckled and nodded back. "Ready as I can be." She didn't care if she had been killing those bastards for countless weeks. She was _not, _and never _will be _ready to fight them.

The southerner took a deep breath, unlatched the door, and he began to tear bullets into the infected.

"Zoey, yknow what would be _awesome?_" He asked, grunting as he threw the end of his weapon into the twisted face of a stubborn zombie.

"Huh?"

"Is if you _helped- _OW- me!" He shouted. Keith yelped again as an infected sunk their teeth into his arm, and tore some skin and muscle off. He hissed loudly and screamed, dropping his gun and grabbing his bloody limb.

"Keith!" Zoey yelled, finally giving herself the adrenaline to shove off the sick and kill them. She ran at her new friend, pulling him back inside, before closing the door and locking herself out with the hungry flesh-eaters. "How does _this _feel?!" She shouted. Zoey kicked an infected in the stomach to knock them away, and fired at two others that were clawing at her.

"So.. Depeche Mode, huh?" Nick asked, looking down at the reporter's shirt. He realized the conversation wasn't going to get anywhere interesting, but noise was all the conman wanted to hear.

Even _Ellis _was not talking.

Rochelle nodded, not looking back at him. "Yea, I've always liked their music as a kid."

The card shark opened his mouth to reply, but froze with the rest of the group when loud, repeative gunfire was heard close by. "Do you think it might be...?"

"It has to be Zoey. Who else?" Rochelle smiled with hope.

The other companions grinned at each other, and all at once like something had cued them, they took off towards the source of the noise.

"She shouldn't be too far..." Francis' voice shook as he ran.

"And being alone, she _had _to have stopped for some reason." Louis added.

The gunshots became louder, and the closer they got to the sound, the more... _agonized _they sounded. Infected were faintly heard screaming, and although they knew it was supposed to be panic or rushing of some sort, it just sounded like noise. But there was something that caused the horde to be there. Something that attracted the infected. Something that _did _sound like panic.

"Zoey!" Ellis bellowed, spotting the bright red in the dull, hungry crowd. Her face looked contorted of pain, anger, and concentration all at once. She seemed to swing around her nearly empty rifle harder with each blow, but at the same time, seemed to grow weaker with each punch taken to her body. Ellis shot carefully at a few of the infected that were clawing at the younger's clothes, and a few of the other survivors joined in to help.

Zoey heard the other shots. Even over all the chaos shoving her around and screaming in her ears. But she couldn't look at her friends right now. She wasn't _allowed _to. She just needed to get the job done and tear the enemies down before she can reunite with her friends.

She whined as the infected she was swinging at dodged the attack and smacked her in the face. She grunted when another sick ran for her, but tripped over itself and landed hard on Zoey's own feet. She hissed from a kick to the stomach. She moaned at a scratch to her back. She yelped when she was punched in the temple. She screamed when she got bitten. She cried when she fell. She blacked out when she was beaten into the cement ground.


	12. Bend

Blackness surrounded her thoughts, and she stopped thinking altogether. It scared her to be able to hear everything around her, but she couldn't do a thing about it. The sounds the horde erupted when finding out they had incapacitated and knocked out their prey where eerie, screaming with delight and fighting over who gets what limb, and who gets to claim her first.

_(To think that these things that were once human beings where now excited that they have an easy meal. _

_Zoey inwardly jumped when she saw herself. She was caked and covered in blood and bruises. _

_She wasn't cut. The blood wasn't hers. And why was she suddenly laughing? Zoey skidded on the broken glass below her, slicing new cuts into her unprotected feet. More than enough people where screaming her name, and she didn't know where the voices came from, or where to go.)_

Ellis' eyes weren't the only one to catch the woman falling. The biker sprinted full speed towards the girl, practically body slamming through several infected. The group began to run after him, hitting infected this way and that, slashing them apart, tearing them down, whatever they could to get to their fallen friend.

"Out of my way, assholes!" Francis screamed, smacking a snarling woman to the side.

_Another pair of strong arms tore at her clothing–– a new person. They shouted for her to get up and dragged her inside, dripping their own blood down her neck. _

Rochelle began to panic when she and the others noticed that Zoey was suddenly lost in the crowd.

Or gone altogether.

"Where the _fuck _did she go?!" the reporter screamed in confusion.

"How am I supposed to know? But heads up, they're coming _our _way, now!" Nick responded angrily. He smacked his empty clip off of the gun and dug into his suit pocket for a new one, shoving it expertly in with only a few seconds lost.

Francis skidded to a stop as the horde started to move onto them, and he backed up slowly to reload. Bullets whipped past him, dangerously close, to hit the predators.

_Heavy breathing was all she could hear now, and she wasn't sure whether it was her own or not. There was light tapping on her cheeks, and ice cold water running from her eyes. They trickled to the side and crept around her neck and a moan escaped her throat. The figure hovering above her gasped and began to shake her._

"_Zoey? Can you hear me? Don't worry... I'm right here... They'll be in here soon, don't worry..." _

_That voice... it was so... so..._

exhausted. The infected seemed to double after every one was killed. It was terrible. But of course, they've all fought like this before.

But that doesn't stop them from wearing out.

"_Oh shit... Zoey? I.. I gatta go help them! I promise I'll be back..." The voice trailed off and continued to get farther away from her as they spoke. She heard a door open to expose loud screaming outside before it shut again. _

More gunfire joined theirs, and the group could only be grateful for all the help they could get rather than worry about who it was.

_Zoey placed a hand on her abdominal and let out a throaty groan, snaking her fingers through the torn cloth and feeling the deep cuts underneath. They stung all over and blood oozed out of the wounds. She cracked her eyes open, the dim light bulb above her swinging back and fourth. _

_There was a bang on the outside wall near the door, but she only shut her eyes again, wanting to ignore it all and fall back into unconsciousness. _

_The noise quickly grew softer, and she struggled to sit up._

The last of the infected finally fell. They were done.

_Almost._

"Zoey..." Bill mumbled.

"Keith!" Ellis shouted suddenly.

"Keith?"

"KEITH!" the southerner took off towards the said friend, but instead of hugging him, he grabbed his arm. "What happened? Why are you bitten?- No, whatchu doing here, man?" He bombarded him with questions.

Keith sputtered and shook his senses back. "Zoey's inside.! C'mon..." he tugged Ellis' collar to drag him inside.

"She... I... We were just gonna kill this horde and go searchin' for you guys... I didn't think it was so big, man. I got bit, an'- an' she pulled me inside and locked herself out..."

"Z-Zoey...?" He knelt down beside the woman on the floor.

Not a minute later, the rest of the gang threw themselves into the house to come look at Zoey.

"... Shit..." Bill winced when he saw her face scrunch together in pain. He walked over and kneeled next to Ellis and tapped Zoey's hand. "Zoey? Can you hear us?"

Zoey painfully raised her other hand and stuck up her thumb, also exposing a scratched up and pink arm.

"Oh god... Anyone still have their first aid?"

"We're gonna need more than just Barney Band-aids to fix her up, chief." Nick snorted, digging his hands into his pockets. Bill glared at him briefly before turning back to Zoey.

"Hey, you can go to sleep, Zoey. We're gonna have to sew your wounds up, and last time I checked, they were never fun."

Zoey nodded and almost immediately shut her eyes and seeped back into unconsciousness. Louis moved quickly to strap off his kit and toss it to the eldest, Bill almost tearing off the red zipper to get into it.

Disinfecting wipes, gauze, and other medical care poured out of the little red box and he pawed through it until he found what he was looking for.

"Yew know how to stitch up something that bad?' Keith asked out of curiosity.

"Can't say I've never done it before, kid. Now don't worry about what _I'm _doing, and go fix your arm up." Bill said without even looking at him. The red-head glanced down at his slightly swollen injury and scowled.

"Here, lemmie help ya." Ellis offered, taking him by the arm and leading him to a private room. The walk was silent, but as soon as the door was shut, Ellis was already in tears and hugging his best friend. "Where've you been, man?" He wheezed.

"I've been around... I mean," He snorted, "not around _you, _just sticking in this area and trying to stay alive." Keith patted his friend on his back as he sniffled.

"... I missed you. I mean- I- I thought you were..."

"I thought the same, El."

Ellis hiccuped at the nick name, and pulled back to look at his friend. "Keith man... Yer bit..."

"I'm aware."

"You ever been before?"

"No."

"..."

"Don't worry, we're all immune, right? Nothin's gonna happen to me. Promise."

"... Well... The least we could do is clean it up." Ellis nodded firmly, and the southern mechanic sat down to let his friend nurse his cut.


	13. Sitches

"Did you see anyone while you were away?" Ellis tried to make conversation as he cleaned his arm. He shrugged.

"Just so many infected. There's a lot, Ellis."

"Yea... I know..."

Keith's lips curled into a frown. "... Your ma...?" Ellis closed his eyes tight and looked down, nodding. "... I'm sorry, man... It got to mah sister and cousin, too..." He mumbled sorely.

The mechanic didn't look up at him; only slowly scrubbing at the dried blood on Keith's arm. He bent over to grab some gauze from the box and tore off a large length of it. Keith's eyes counted how many times it went around before Ellis finally pinned it together.

"There ya go, good as new."

"You don't seem too happy to see me again."

"Noo.. it ain't that."

Keith stood up after him and followed him to the other side of the room. He snapped his first and middle to get his attention, and swallowed. "What is it, then?"

"...I miss my mama... Keith. You're- You're the only one I have left."

"What about your other friends out there?" He nodded outside the room.

"But I hardly know 'em!"

"Tha' doesn't mean you shouldn't give them a chance, El. Hell, I went solo-style these last few months." He chuckled half-heartedly. Ellis gave him a lop sided grin, but it faded away as fast as it came.

"... 'kay." He nodded once.

The two walked out together to find Bill kneeling over Zoey and carefully stitching her up. He looked extremely weary and concerned, deep wrinkles showing more obviously than before.

"How she holdin' up?" Ellis asked, slipping past Keith and Rochelle. He looked Zoey up and down, and rested his eyes on her closed ones. Never had he been nervous about someone sleeping like this until now.

"You guys weren't in there for very long, so, can't really say anything different." the woman answered. Ellis glanced at Nick briefly, but long enough to catch a faint, faaaaaint worried look in his eyes. He looked back down to the unconscious body on the floor, before huffing and walking to the conman.

"You alright, man?"

Nick crossed his arms and shrugged. "We might be here for a while." was all he said, and he rubbed his nose as he looked back at Ellis' friend. "... So this is the famous Keith you've been talking about?"

"Yah... I'd be happier but, well, ain't a good time."

Nick nodded in agreement, and urged out another question. "Is he immune?"

"Well o'course, he's still alive, ain't he?"

"We've never been bit before. How do we know?"

Ellis sputtered. "I- er- we- I coulda... coulda _sworn _we been bit before... I mean, ain't that what them zombies do? Bite cha down." He said, hardly emphasizing his last 'n' in his accent.

"Not that I know of, kid." Nick answered, walking away to lean against the wall behind them. The mechanic dug his hands into his pockets and glanced back over to Zoey on the ground.

"Please get better, Zo." He muttered to himself.

Although everyone had a friend to worry about, they sort of had to worry about themselves, too. Louis rubbed at his stomach as it growled back at him. When was the last time any of them ate? He couldn't remember. The man looked around the room, wondering if everyone else was feeling the same.

Well, Keith didn't seem to be hungry.

"Was there any food in here when you came?" He asked, which got several confused looks. "... What?"

"We're kind of too busy to check, Louis." Francis grumbled, nodding to Zoey.

"So... Zoey being unconscious means I can't be hungry?" He said, and heard Rochelle giggle in the background.

"There's some cans of peach slices and them spaghetti-O's on the floor in the kitchen if ya want some. Zoey wanted to pack as soon as possible, so they're just kinda scattered everywhere." Keith stated, and thought for a second. "But make sure ya ain't grabbin' the expired ones."

Louis nodded a thanks and set off to his task of finding everyone food.

He entered the room and clicked on the light, smelling some of the wasted and opened food. The office man looked around on the tile floor and picked up a few cans, reading the labels. _ Campbell's Spaghetti-O's original _and _Bush's Best since 1908 Pinto Beans _was enough to make his stomach wail even more. He scooped up several of the cans, along with some green-beans, and set them out on the counter. He searched through the cabinets, but frowned when he didn't find anything useful.

"... Guess I'll have to find a way around this..." He spoke to himself. He looked from the stove to the cans and back. Could he simply just..? Louis leaned over and flicked on one of the heaters on a low setting. A minute later, he stuck his hand above it and nodded when his hand felt it's warmness. The suited male scooted over to be in front of the cans and opened one up with a can opener he'd found earlier. Louis hummed as he turned the food in his hands, and threw the lid into the trash beside him.

He placed the open can on the stove and patiently waited for it to warm up. "Hmm..."

Louis searched the drawers around him for a spoon, and 'aha'd when he found one. He took the can off of it's heater and stuck the spoon inside, turning off the stove to walk out.

"What's the news on Zoey?"

"Well, I finished sewing her, I just don't know when she'll wake up." Bill answered, and wiped at his brow.

"Oh, alright. Well... I heated up a can of food if you want some." Louis offered politely. The poor eldest had worked so much to get Zoey back and heal her, the _least _Louis could do was feed him.

Bill hesitated for a moment before nodding once and gratefully taking it. "Thank you." He mumbled, smiling faintly. The optimist smiled back, and walked away to prepare food for everyone else. They both looked back down to Zoey, before the eldest looked away shamefully.

"... It's amazing we found her."

"She was never too far away from us, Bill."

"Exactly... She was so close to us, yet I still let them take her away..."

"Bill. Not saying this to be mean," Francis interupted. "but shut up. You're letting yourself get so hung up on nothing. Be glad she's back at all, okay, old man?"

And although the biker had said it rudely, he did have a point. She was back now. That's all that matters. Bill nodded firmly. "Okay."

"Oh, and I think she might as well wake up in a bed. Because that floor looks horribally uncomfortable." Louis spoke. Francis rubbed his eye and turned back to the veteran man.

"Would carrying her hurt her stitches?"

"Not unless you're very, _very _careful with it."

The biker nodded and walked over to lift her up. His eyes widened when discovering that she was even lighter than last time he'd carried her, and was reminded of their lack of food the last several weeks.

"She really needs to eat..."

"We'll feed her when she's up."

"Alright."

As Francis carried her limp body to a room in the back of the house, Ellis tried to make conversation with anyone to avoid silence.

"So.. Erm..."

"El?" Keith called from across the living room, and everyone looked at him. He lifted a finger and guestured for the hick to come back to him. Ellis obeyed his friend and left Nick's side to join Keith's.

"Yah?"

"... How've you been?" He asked slowly, making small talk.

"Well, I've been alright, I guess."

"You guess? Whatchu mean?"

"... It's been weird, man. Lady Luck seems tuh hate us, an' there's been some downs in our group."

"Don't worry, she don't like me much, either." He winked, and Ellis laughed, suddenly remembering all the times his southern friend has gotten hurt. "What kinda downs do ya mean?"

"Well... When Coach, Rochelle, Nick an' I met the other four, they were fightin' like cats. I also been having weird dreams lately... Well, since the apocalypse started, acshully," Ellis explained. It was sort of hard to prove his point, since there weren't so many 'downs' as he thought. They've had some good times. Like...

Like when Nick comforted him! Yeah, there's one!

"Awh, that ain't so bad. I mean, I don't have anythin' worse, cause my only real down was just having to split away from you and Dave, but now I gotchu back!" He smiled, and took off his hat to run a rough hand through his hair.

Ellis grinned back and gave his best friend a loud high-five. "Well, brother, it's sure going to be nice to work with ya." He joked.

Keith only nodded, keeping his lop-sided smile, before shooing Ellis away and letting him go back to talking to everyone else. The mechanic nodded and waved him off, and trotted back to Nick.

"... What the fuck was that about?" the conman asked when he got back, and Ellis snorted a laugh.

"Just me talkin' with mah friend. But I think I should lighten YOU up, too, cause you have less expression than a brick."

"Better than smiling like a beaver." He muttered, and Ellis giggled before turning around to lean on the wall next to him. He slid down to the floor and pulled his legs to his chest, and looked back up to the card shark.

"Thanks, Nick." He smiled a little.

"... What for?" He asked, sliding down with him.

"For talking tuh me when I had that bad dream."

Nick tilted his head to the side a little. "Oh, uh... No problem, I guess..."

"... Do you think I'm stupid?" Ellis asked, not looking at the conman. His smile was gone and he crossed his arms over his knees.

The question was rather sudden, and Nick wondered why the poor kid would even ask that. "Why?"

"I feel like you're always looking down on me like I'm a baby or something. A stupid baby.'

"You're not. You do stupid _things, _but you're not stupid, El."

_Ellis... quit being upset... _Nick silently urged. He hated seeing a frown on Ellis.

"... Hey, Ellis." He nudged his elbow on the mechanic's arm. He looked up at him with curious eyes. "I promise. And if you want me to stop making cheap insults like the ass hat I am, I will."

Ellis thought for a moment, and cracked a smile. "Maybe. But then that wouldn't be like you at all."

Nick only laughed. Hard.

**Author's notes: Ahoy :D So, I hope you're enjoying the fact that I'm really late in uploading everything. -sarcasm-**

**Oh, and I hope I'm not the only one who imagines everyone else (Well, just Coach and Rochelle) are standing around the entire time. I could AT LEAST imagine them sitting on the floor or leaning on the wall or something instead of blocking Ellis', Nick's, and Keith's views of each other xD**


	14. Chasing The Mind

Ellis found it interesting. His best friend since the day he could walk was laying in another room, probably still wide awake with worry about the fact that he was bitten, and here the mechanic was, in his own bubble of thoughts, and he could only think about a certain conman. Nick had promised him something before everyone decided to head off to bed. Nick wasn't going to be rude to him, and though he liked the sound of that, it sounded foreign. Ellis shook his head. Why _would _he ask if Nick thought he was stupid? If the card shark thought he was, he would've said it long ago.

He was fascinated by his own thoughts, because it was as if he wasn't really thinking when speaking to the older man. Words were stuck into his mouth and he spit them out out of order and upside-down.

If anything, Nick might think Ellis was _interested _in him! Ellis laughed, but then seized his own noise.

… Was he?

Ellis stared up at the ceiling, dumbfounded by his own thoughts. If he was- well, shit, man. He didn't even know he swayed that way. The fact alone that Nick may be the cause of his stupidity and distraction made him shiver. But of course, living with his ma, he grew up learning that all sorts of people where still people.

_'It doesn't matter who you love, as long as you're happy, Ellis!' _His mother used to tell him. Ellis would always laugh and shake it off as nothing, thinking he was all for the women, anyways.

Ellis looked over to the man of his thoughts, his eyes scanning the sleeping figure and the rise and fall of his stomach. The conman looked so much more thin without his stained white coat on, and with only the blue under shirt, he looked even better than usual.

One night? It shouldn't take one night itself for Ellis to decide if he liked someone of his own gender or not. He's tired, maybe he's just confused.

Besides, even if he did like the older man, how would he explain it to him? 'Hey, Nick! Heh, over night, I decided that well, I like yew, so why don't we get together and just get it on! What do ya say?'

Ellis nibbled his bottom lip and turned over on his side, his back to the sleeping gambler. He shut his eyes tightly, gripping onto the pillow beneath him. He's just confused. Yeah, that's it. He'll be alright in the morning.

Already, the southerner was drifting off to sleep, and he allowed himself to relax. The bill of his hat was pushed up as he rested his head forward on the pillow until it slipped off completely.

_One, two, three... four... fiiivee... siiix..._

It was hot. And not only was it hot, it was dark, and humid. Like someone was close enough to him to make him sweat a little from so much body heat.

Ellis blinked, but the amount of darkness did not change. He tried to lift an arm, and he realized then he was laying on something.

No, _someone. _

He jolted, sitting up too fast and waking the person beneath him as he fell backwards to the floor.

"El, you alright?"

Ellis froze at the sound of the voice.

… _Oh shit. _

The southerner grabbed at his chest and gasped, when he felt his bare skin under his hand. Where... He looked down to find that he was stripped down to only his boxers, and he flushed.

_When did this happen?_

He woke up to the sound of infected howling outside and the feel of his sweat. Ellis blinked his blues and sat up quickly, not even disturbing the gambler next to him. He looked around the dark room, swallowing several times and sighed. "What was that all about...?" He whispered to himself.

Ellis slowly reached an arm to his chest, and was pleased to find his clothes still on.

Except, one thing about his clothes caught his attention. The southerner pulled the covers off of him to find that he had urinated himself in his sleep. Blood rushed to his face, and he was quite thankful he'd woken up now. Man, he wouldn't even begin to describe how embarrassing it would be for someone else to find what he'd done. Although, he couldn't blame himself; he'd never really found a chance to relieve himself the previous day.

Ellis left the bed to change his undergarments, moving to discard the boxers in the laundry room across the hall.

A thought struck the mechanic, and he turned on his heel to head towards the room Keith was in. His feet slid on the wood as he walked the short distance, the only comforting noise of the night. When he reached the door, he raised an arm to turn the knob when he stopped in his place. _What if he's dead? _

Ellis shook his head, urging himself to move into the room, despite his negative thoughts. The room was dimly lit and the only sound was the survivors' breathing. He looked around, finally spotting the other mechanic lying on his back in the bed, his covers off.

"Keith..." He said in a low, grumbled voice. He crossed the room in a few short steps, eyebrows furrowing together the closer he got. "Keith, you alright?" He poked his friend with one finger, and the red-head only stirred, moving onto his side. Ellis crouched down and put a hand to his forehead. "Well, you're temperature seems alrigh'." He mumbled.

"Cool, but I don't feel alright." Keith responded, and Ellis titled his head with concern.

"Oh?"

"One minute I'm on fire, man. The next, I'm cold as ice." He complained quietly.

"I've had some nights like that. It's nothin'." Ellis said, trying to ease both of their nerves a little.

"I hope it ain't anything bad. Ellis, you know how much I like my life," He chuckled, "and tonight would not be a good time to end it."

"It won't end, so shut up." He said, playfully nudging him. "Why don't we go an' talk in the living room or something before we wake someone else?"

Keith nodded, sitting up and rubbing at his eye. He shivered a little as small goosebumps made their way onto his bandaged arms. Ellis led the way out of the room, silently counting the number of pictures on the wall. When they reached the wider room, the two made their way to sit on a couch, and there was a small silence before Ellis cleared his throat.

"I don't know if you're immune." He started. Keith looked at him, before glancing back down at his feet and nodding.

"I don't know, either, El."

"I mean... I hope you are. I'm gettin' a little more reassurance that you are, cause you haven't turned yet. I- I thought it didn't take long to, uh, change." He explained. Why was he even talking about this, though? If anything, they should talk about something _but _Keith changing, say he does.

"I don't know. I hope so, too, man." He gave a lop-sided smile the two always seemed to share as a feature. He wiped at his brow, although there was no sweat formed there.

Ellis clasped his fingers together and looked away, frowning. "Keith." He squeaked. Should he voice his confusion...?

He shook his head. "Never mind. I already know." He smiled, fibbing.

The red head took a deep breath and smiled back. "What was it?"

"If we were going to actually get to New Orleans." He lied even more. He didn't need to tell Keith. Not yet, anyways. Ellis himself was still trying to figure out what the hell was going through his mind.

"What do ya think?"

"We will." He said, blue eyes sparkling.

Nick woke up to the sound of a shower running next door. He looked to his right to find an empty spot where Ellis laid the night before. The conman rubbed at his cheeks, hoping to stretch out tightened face muscles, before reaching his arms above his head and yawning. He ran a hand through his messy hair, taking a chance to look around the blank room.

He threw the covers off of his torso and climbed out, never being the sort of person to linger in bed after awakening, and stilled himself after wobbling around from sleep. He looked around the dimly lit room before walking out into the hall.

"-a lotta them, too. I wonder what's got them all out here..." The conman overheard Coach speaking to other survivors out in the living room.

"It's because they've run out of food, that's what. They've come here in hopes of getting a scrap of our flesh." Francis replied with a grumble. Nick walked away from the bedroom door and entered the room the others where hanging out in.

"Hey."

"About time you got up, lazy ass." The biker responded.

"... What the hell happened to a simple 'Hello'?" He raised an eyebrow. Francis smirked, but said nothing. "So... Any news about anything?"

Coach cleared his throat. "Well, we've got loads of infected outside," He started.

"So I heard." Nick nodded.

"There's a lotta them. I wonder if there's even more zombies from yesterday's events." He spoke, running a gloved hand over his face.

"Well, whatever it is, we need to get rid of them. We can't stay in this shit hole all day." Francis said as the shower went off. The conman looked down the hall where the bathroom was and ran a hand around his greasy head. He hoped he'd get a turn in the bathroom. If the man had to go any longer with so much grime caked on his clothing and skin, he'd probably rip out his hair and scream.

**Author's notes: I'm sort of itchy about uploading this chapter ._. I'm afraid the few people who DO like this story will turn away once they read this because of the thought alone that I'm just another fangirl. **

**Well, crap. Whatever. Flames will be used to make s'mores.**


	15. Empty

The three of them all sat on the bed in some sort of triangle, their feet curled up in a criss-cross manner. Zoey, Ellis, and Keith. The two southerners where quite happy to find Zoey finally awake after a long sleep into early afternoon.

'She sure gets knocked out a lot." Keith stated, exhaling with satisfaction after stretching his arms out.

"This time she jus' fell asleep on her own." Ellis responded.

"Well, I'm awake now." Zoey chuckled. She looked from Ellis to Keith and back. "So anyways, what happened to him?"

"What happened to- Oh yeah!" The mechanic laughed. "Now, we were in mama's kitchen, preparing her breakfast, the two of us for her. It was her birthday at the time, and we must've been... twelve? Eleven?"

"I think it was twelve." The red-head agreed.

Ellis nodded. "Anyway, Keith wanted to make her blueberry muffins, all of our favourite, an', well, let's say mama woke up to the sound of the fire alarm going off." He snorted with laughter. He turned to his friend. "Keith, you were, are, and always will be a terrible cook, honestly. Everything he _touches _might as well be thrown out in the end since it's so black and burned!"

"Shut up, you ain't so good yourself."

"I'll have you know, I cook like an angel. Just like my maw." He stuck a thumb up to point to himself, and Zoey giggled.

"I didn't know you cooked."

"What? Cause I'm a man?"

"Kid fits the bill better..." Keith muttered.

"I'll have you know, it ain't just a woman's job." Ellis nodded matter-of-factly. "I'm gonna see if I can find something for us to snack on, hold up." He said, uncrossing his legs and moving to bounce off of the bed.

He strode out into and down the hall and entered the kitchen, glancing at a few of the other survivors who had been hanging out there for a good hour. Rochelle welcomed the man with a warm smile and he grinned back at everyone. "Howdy."

They nodded to him, and he began whistling as he walked towards the refrigerator. "Any news?" He asked while bending down to look around. When nobody spoke up, he turned back to them with an eyebrow raised.

"You might not enjoy it– Of course, you probably already heard them, but we.. we have to leave." Francis frowned, popping his knuckles.

"... Huh?"

"We're running low on everything, kid. We just got here, but whoever was in front of us decided to clear out nearly all the food and supplies."

"... But I thought we had some just yesterday, a bunch of it, too-!"

"I thought so too, but..." He trailed off, not sure how to finish the sentence. "Well, we have _nine_ people now to feed, we haven't necessarily eaten a healthy amount of food in... how long...?" The biker asked, looking at the others. He turned back to Ellis and shrugged. "We all gotta eat, man." He chuckled, though his face held no humour.

"... We... we just got here... an' Zoey..."

"She'll be fine, El." Nick said, scratching at his neck. "It's not like she does have others to watch her back." He winked. Ellis wanted to laugh then, because even though the group was growing in numbers, Zoey still managed to jump right into danger or out of the hands of the rest of the party.

Although Ellis was slightly put down, it was really only out of pure concern and laziness. He didn't want to leave, he was just getting comfortable! … Dammit. The southern mechanic rubbed at his nose and sighed.

"Who said we have to leave? Is there not a store around we could snatch food from?"

"Well, we never checked. Guess that'd be a better idea than moving again..." Rochelle laughed rubbing the back of her head sheepishly. It wasn't her idea of setting foot, but she'd been easily convinced and agreed immediately.

"So who wants to go with me?" He gave a lopsided smile to the three. Nick almost instantly withdrew from the small circle he sat in, which got him in trouble. "Nick!" he clapped, blue eyes shining brightly. "I'll bet you'll _love _fighting those infected and walking into an alarmed store with me!" he yelled while jumping around like an enthusiastic kid in a carnival. Francis began to point and laugh at the conman who was wandering around the room muttering swear words.

"No. No no nononononoo." He protested. Ellis smiled and jogged across the small room to grab his wrist and tug at it.

"Come on! It'll be a walk in the park!"

"... No."

"Why not?"

"Cause I'd get stuck listening to _you._"

Ellis fake-pouted. "I'm so hurt."

"... Suck it."

"Niiick..."

Francis laughed harder. "Yeah, come on, Nick!"

"Shut up, Big Guy, you're not helping!" the conman grouched.

Rochelle had joined in with the laughter and watched as the younger man slowed down. "I should get back to where Zoey and Keith are and tell 'em where we're headed," he said.

He flattened out his pants with his hands before trotting off, leaving the other two staring at the conman.

"... What?"

"I'm sure the kid would like your company while searching around for a store." Rochelle quietly said. The card shark looked over to Francis to find him nodding in agreement. He ran a hand over his face and sighed.

"Fine." a pause. "... But I'm sacrificing his ass if he gets us in trouble."

"Hey guys, I'm gonna be heading- … Heheh..." He laughed slowly as he walked into the room filled with his friends' own giggling and hand-slapping.

The two were getting along by playing patty-cake.

"Howdy!" Keith greeted without looking away.

"Hey, I'm gonna be heading outside to see if there's a store around we can snatch food from, seein' as we don't have much here anymore."

"Okay, have fun." Zoey responded half-heartedly as she concentrated on messing the southerner up.

Ellis walked back out and bent down to tie his shoe, listening to the conversation outside. A tiny smile tugged at his lips. Nick was agreeing to coming with him!

It wasn't a large deal, they were just _looking, _after all. But Ellis had actually only recently really began talking to the man. Nick was surely uncomfortable in the beginning, when it was only himself, Coach, Rochelle and the very slick conman himself. There wasn't much to it. Just a lot of running both up and down stairs, killing infected to save themselves, but not much talking. Ellis talked a mile a minute to keep silence occupied, even when smacking his bat into the skulls of infected, but the others only spoke to say short sentences such as introducing their names.

It was easy to say from the start, even from Ellis, that Nick... he was an asshole. _Still is, _but a _trustworthy _asshole. The man had watched for his back only, and had threatened on numerous occasions that the others weren't useful and he could do just as fine without them. It was up until that one day Ellis had called out to him and reminded him that he's had plenty of chances to hit the road, but never did.

And he was right. Nick needed them as much as they needed him.

Ellis got up from his crouched position on the floor, shaking his head from his continuous thoughts that left him sitting in the middle of the hallway, staring at nothing.

"We ready?" He asked while walking back in.

"Yeppers." Nicholas responded, patting the little pouch that held his gun strapped to his leg.

"Okay, let's go!"

"We'll be back in... maybe an hour or two? I don't know how long it'll take." He told the others as he and the younger survivor walked to the door.

"You might want to arm yourselves better..." Rochelle called.

"Why would we need to- HOLY SHIT." Ellis was heard screaming after he opened the front door and slammed it back shut. Francis began howling with amusement once again.

"Seems he forgot the infected..." Nick muttered. Ellis, spooked, avoided the door and trotted to the other side of the room to grab his trusty ax.

"I uh..."

"'I uh..', yeah. Get out there." Nick mocked, although there was a small smirk on his face. Ellis chuckled and moved back to open the door, wrapping his hand around the knob. "Man, it's like them zombies are _obsessed _with us!" He joked.

Ax raised with one arm, Ellis yanked the entrance open and jumped out, Nick right behind him. He gripped his weapon with both hands and swung at the first infected that came for him, then the next, and several more after. The elder raised his pistol, but stopped when Ellis glanced at him worriedly.

"I thought you brought something else with you, too!"

"The pistol's all I have!" He replied over the growing noise, and smacked a zombie away from him.

"That gun alone will attract more infected! Do you want that?" He asked, grunting as he hit a male infected's shoulder with the ax's head. Though there wasn't as many infected as yesterday, it was still a healthy amount; enough to keep them stuck outside the door for a good ten minutes.

… By then, the infected were cleared, all by Ellis. He huffed and lowered the ax, glaring at Nick. The conman gave an embarrassed toothy grin, and watched Ellis mock-storm away.

Nick looked around the area and frowned. Dead bodies littered the place, thanks to today's and yesterday's messes. The weather must be getting colder, especially up north, which would explain the increase in so many infected over here, while it was still warm. The survivors would figure the infected would merely ignore the change in the temperature, but who knows better than the zombies themselves?

"You think it's gonna rain?"

Nick was snapped out of his unproductive thoughts when he heard the southerner's voice. He looked at him to find him looking up at the sky, and followed his gaze. Yup. There were dark grey clouds beginning to enter the town the survivors were in. The last thing they needed was getting caught in a storm, in the middle of nowhere, while infected were traveling towards them. Especially with cold weather.

"I suppose. Guess we better hurry, then." He said, picking up the pace a little. Ellis obeyed and fell into step beside him.

"So, have I told you about the time Keith and I went camping out in his backyard one night, and a thunderstorm hit us?"

"No." He responded, hardly listening.

"Well, when it came, we didn't run inside or anything, 'cause we were actually on a bet to see who could live outside the longest. Yknow tents have those metal frames to hold it up? Lightning was comin' our way because of it, striking closer an' closer each time, and by the time it hit the grass in front of us... Shit," He paused to give a short laugh. "we were scared senseless. I was whining at Keith to just call the bet off, and he's all "Nuh-uh, I want my money!', and then his ma starts hollering at us to get our asses in the house, but we didn't wanna, and then the lightning-"

"How long is this story?" Nick interrupted.

"The good part is comin'! Anyways, the lightning struck the tent finally, scared his mama inside, and hell, I'll bet I was really lucky. I wasn't affected at all! Keith though... His hair was poofed up like this," Ellis made a wide gesture around his head like an afro, "he was unconscious, and he looked as cooked as a turkey on Thanksgiving."

Ellis finished his story with a nod and a smile.

"Isn't it like a one in a million chance to be struck by lightning?"

"Yeah, I thought so too. But then I met Keith."

Nick laughed and shook his head. "I don't know how he's still alive after all that shit."

"'Cause he's amazing! Man, I've hardly told you _half _of what his body has been through!"

"And yet, the conclusion is usually him being set on fire or drowned by a gator-freak." He said, stepping over another body.

Ellis glanced back up at the sky before shaking his head and catching up to the older man. "Oh! I can tell you about the time Keith set fire to-"

"Oh _god." _

Broken glass crunched under his shoes as he stepped up to the window to peek inside. And what he found wasn't glorious. It amazed him how the shelves were still standing upright. Empty boxes littered the floors in several aisles, the ransacked and robbed of all but few nutrients.

"Figures that we wouldn't be the first ones here." He muttered as Ellis walked up beside him. He wriggled around uncomfortably when he too saw the inside of the store.

"D'ya think we'll find anything?"

"If we're lucky. Come on, sport." He elbowed him, and walked around him to push open the door. The little bell inside jingled and they stepped inside, looking around the place once more with little admiration. "I'm going to go look for food on this side," He stuck a thumb to his left, and then jabbed a finger in the mechanic's direction. "and you can go look for drinks and medical supplies over there."

Ellis nodded and set off to his task, Nick with his. The conman carefully watched his surroundings as he paced towards his side of the store. "Hey, Ellis? I forgot to mention to watch out for infe-"

"NICK!" he was interrupted with the younger man calling out for him.

His eyes widened and he just about zipped through the small store and to the southerner. "Ellis? Ellis, what happened?!" He yelled as he rounded a corner and cursed– wrong aisle. He ran back out turned on his heel when a blur caught his eye.

"Nick, get over here!" Ellis shouted again. Oh god, if he'd just jinxed the man and discovered a zombie ripping at him-

"Nick, oh my god it's so cuuuuuute!" He found Ellis squeaking, holding a stuffed bunny.

"It- wait... WHAT? You scared the living daylights out of me for THAT?" He shouted, but the kid wasn't listening.

"So... What were you gonna tell me?" He smiled, his blue eyes sparkling curiously.

Oh man, how Nick just wanted to smack the child right now.


	16. Notebook

The two men's shopping adventure was only shortly lived, though, as Nick had only found three cans of soup and peaches, and Ellis had no luck finding any beverages.

"Maybe we should check the storage room? I'll bet that is one of the last places people check when they are raiding around for food." The mechanic suggested. His partner nodded.

"Yeah, let's go there."

"You got your flashlight on you?" He asked, looking back at Nick as he walked.

"Yeah, why?"

"You ever been in a storage room? They never seem to have the lights on, and I don't even know if there's a light switch in there." He explained. They stopped at the double doors for only a short second before proceeding forward. Ellis was right. It _was _dark. It was also huge, stinky, and filled with dozens of aisles and crates and boxes and machines used to lift said crates.

"... Guess we're splitting up again..? Who knows how long it'll take to find something usefull." Nick said, looking back down from his gaze at the ceiling. Ellis shook his head.

"I don't have my flashlight, and last time I checked, I ain't got any night vision." He chuckled.

"Oh, right." Nick clicked the light switch, and it shined dully in a thin line from it's spot on his pistol. Thunder rumbled outside, reminding the two to hurry up.

The card shark began walking, and Ellis followed right behind him, staying close since his vision was limited. The dusty room was, actually, already invaded, what with the clues of it being just as trashed as the rest of the store, and the fact that some crates were open and emptied out. Ellis explored the areas on the sides of the two men with his eyes as they walked, and gasped as something flashed in his sight.

He stopped, searching for the source of it, when Nick carried on with the only light, oblivious that his younger companion quit following him.

"Nick." He whispered loudly. His eyes widened when he heard a sniffle from neither himself nor the older survivor staring at him.

"What is it?"

"Bring yer flashlight over here." He commanded quietly, afraid if he were to speak louder, it would trigger some sort of alarm. Nick slowly backtracked to him, his dress shoes clacking quietly on the hard floor. As soon as he was within reach, Ellis snatched the gun from the other's hands.

"Hey-!"

"Sh!"

Shakily, Ellis let the beam of light trail across the floor. It raised slowly, and stopped on a pair of feet, scared to travel up further. The two gasped, their heart rates speeding up at a million miles an hour. A sudden boom of thunder scared Ellis; his jumping causing the beam of light to shake around, and it landed right on the infected's eyes. Then the two did what they could do best when scared.

They screamed like four year old girls.

And the infected even screamed back. It scrambled to get up, its thin legs giving it no support, and it toppled to the floor. "Shoot it!" Nick screamed.

Ellis' trigger finger immediately responded, and he shot the infected's back. It screamed in pain, it's voice echoing eerily. It tried to get up again, and the mechanic shakily shot it three more times, finally planting a bullet in it's head. The zombie crumpled to the floor, bellowing out one last dying shriek, and the two had to cover their ears.

Nick smacked the kid's chest to get his attention. "Wanna stay here and see if there are more of those things?"

"Awh, little Nickie is scared that there are more of them?" He teased. The conman's eyes widened before he tightened his jaw in annoyance.

"... No. I just think they're unneccecary to deal with, is all."

"Laame. C'mon, I bet there's somethin' around here..." Ellis said, and began walking again. "Hey, you know what to look for. Pull your head up and search around, will ya?"

"... I'll just stay here..."

"Scaredy-Cat!"

* * *

"The two haven't been gone that long, will you quit complaining?"

"But I'm hungry, Zoey!" Francis muttered. "And if those two don't show up with any food I'm going to strangle them."

"Now how does strangling them benefit you?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Hey, Zoey..." Louis called slowly. "Come take a look at what I found." He said, lifting up a book from his lap that was covered in pleather.

The girl curiously strode over to him, and stared at it.

"... What is it?"

"It's a book."

"Duh."

"Well, reading it, I think it might be a diary. But whoever wrote this is pretty boring..."

"Well, why'd you call me over if it's boring, Louis?" She smiled and shook her head.

Louis flipped a few pages and tapped on it. "But _here," _he slid his fingers under some words, "is where it get's interesting. This is some information on the apocolypse. Might help us out. I'm not entirely sure what to do with this information just yet, as we already figured most of it out. But this..." he squinted, pulling the book closer to his face to read aloud. "'I think they're almost here. They have plently others to help, of course, but they don't seem to be helping none. My dad told me that if you have even the smallest trace of this insane flu, they'll shoot you dead. Personally I would put them in quarantine and wait to see if they get better before I ki'... And it cuts of there.

"Zoey, they're just killing people. Not even giving a damn on what we think or if we'll get better or not."

Zoey stared at the pages, shocked.

"... You're-You're joking, right? We can't just be..."

"Fighting for nothing?" Francis asked, a lot quieter than usual.

"We _aren't _fighting for nothing!" She argued, fist clenching.

"Face it, they're going to kill us on sight. Everything we're doing now is just to waste some time- we're playing a sick video game that never ends and never redo's itself. We're done..."

"You know what? _Shut up._" she spat. "I don't care if you're a pesimist or not. What you're saying is just bullshit... a complete scam..."

"Zoey," Louis sighed. "You're... I hate to say this. As much as I don't want to... I agree with Francis."

Zoey's eyes widened.

"I guess we're really only fighting now so we don't have to die now. Either way, we're just running food for zombies or a surviving hazard to the doctors and military and everyone who was meant to save us. Think about Keith, man. He's been practically _injected _with the flu."

"Keith will be fine-!"

"But they don't believe that. And screaming at them won't make it believe it any more than they do."

Zoey remained silent. She had nothing to say, at all. With frustrated tears welling up, she simply muttered "Oh, you're absolutely correct. I shouldn't have even bothered protesting." and walked away.

**Author's note: Honestly, with the scene where Ellis and Nick discovered that screaming infected, I originally wanted Nick to scream and shove Ellis towards the zombie in some sort of sacrificing manner xD **

**And I feel like I just **_**love **_**tormenting my poor characters :I xD**


End file.
